Mario M. Kranjac, a former two-term mayor of Englewood Cliffs and a close friend of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, is mulling a bid for the Republican nomination for governor of New Jersey next year, the New Jersey Globe has learned.
Kranjac is in the field right now, conducting a benchmark poll to test messaging for himself and other Republican candidates.
He did not respond to a call, text message, or e-mail seeking comment.
The 58-year-old Kranjac, a pro-Trump conservative, became the first Republican mayor of tiny Englewood Cliffs (pop. 5,342) in 40 years after the retirement of Joseph Parisi, Jr. in 2015. Parisi had become mayor a decade earlier after the death of his father, who had held the post for 39 years.
Kranjac was re-elected to a second term by a ten-point margin in 2019. He did not seek re-election last year.
Kranjac’s eight years as mayor were full of controversies; the borough council censured him three times, alleging that he harassed municipal employees, bullied council members – some of whom resigned – and ran up huge legal fees. In 2020, Kranjac billed a local teenager $2,500 for police overtime connected to a Black Lives Matter rally she organized; he later rescinded the bill.
But Kranjac touts his own accomplishments as mayor, including creating a business-friendly environment that has helped keep LG Electronics, CNBC, Unilever, and Ferrari North America in town. Kranjac says he’s opposed local affordable housing policies, wasteful spending, and local corruption.
“All residents of New Jersey would see their property taxes drop significantly if politicians and their friends were defunded,” Kranjac states in his official biography.
He is an attorney and venture capitalist in the life sciences arena. His law firm has represented Gingrich, and he raised money for Gingrich’s 2012 presidential run.
If he runs, Kranjac would become the fifth candidate to seek the GOP nod to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy. Former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli (who nearly unseated Murphy in 2021), conservative radio host Bill Spadea, State Sen. Jon Bramnick, and former State Sen. Ed Durr are already in the race; Kranjac supported Ciattarelli in the last election.
Kranjac could become the fourth mayor to enter the 2025 governor’s race, along with Democrats Steven Fulop of Jersey City, Ras Baraka of Newark, and Sean Spiller of Montclair. The last sitting mayor to win election as governor was James E. McGreevey of Woodbridge in 2001.