RGA boosting Ciattarelli with new TV ad slamming Murphy on taxes

The Republican Governors Association launched a new TV ad on Wednesday ripping Gov. Phil Murphy for high taxes in New Jersey.

The RGA uses a much-used clip of Murphy speaking at Rowan University in 2019 and saying that New Jersey isn’t the best fit for tax rate single-issue voters.  The same clip is featured in Republican Jack Ciattarelli’s TV ads and in his stump speech.

The ad will air on broadcast television networks in the New York and Philadelphia markets.  The RGA says they are spending “six figures” on the buy.

Script: (Voiceover) Under Phil Murphy property taxes skyrocketed — the highest in the country. But Murphy doesn’t care.  (Murphy) “If tax rate…is your issue – either a family or a business — we’re probably not your state. (Voiceover) We can’t afford Phil Murphy. (Murphy) “We’re probably not your state.”

“Under Governor Murphy, Garden Staters pay more taxes over a lifetime compared to anywhere else in the country,” said Will Reinert, an RGA spokesman. “Yet instead of putting forward solutions to lighten the state’s backbreaking tax burden on families, Phil Murphy tells life-long residents that New Jersey is no longer the state for them.”

This is the second TV but for the RGA in the 2021 New Jersey Governor’s race.

In another six-figure buy in August, the RGA aired a TV ad slamming Murphy for taking a summer vacation in Italy during the pandemic.

In 2017, the RGA spent $2,355,445 helping Kim Guadagno’s gubernatorial bid against Murphy.