Credit: (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

While not the cornerstone of his campaign for New Jersey governor, Republican Jack Ciattarelli has had a lot to say about social issues, and his positions tend to be far different from those of his major opponent, incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy, giving voters a stark contrast.

Some social justice activists have said Ciattarelli’s record in this area is especially important, given he did not answer a caller’s question asking him to define white privilege during a radio interview earlier this month. About a week later, during his second debate with Murphy, Ciattarelli was asked the same question and answered it this way: “Have whites have access to things that people of color have not? Yes, that’s a sad fact. Has the Black race been disadvantaged and marginalized? Yes, that’s a sad fact. But we need to address it. And I believe that I’m addressing it … We’ve got to bring economic development into our Black communities. They’ve been plagued by disinvestment for decades.”

NJ Spotlight News has taken a look at Murphy’s record on such issues as social justice, public education, the state budget, taxes and the environment. Here’s a review of Ciattarelli’s campaign proposals relating to social justice.

Immigration: A former three-term state assemblyman, Ciattarelli lists “Fix our broken immigration system” as part of the platform he included on his campaign website. Most of his positions support typically conservative views on federal policies over which the governor has no control, such as “the establishment of a national immigration policy that secures our borders, aligns with American’s principles and respects the rule of law.”

Ciattarelli also pledges to end the “sanctuary” state policies the Murphy administration has put in place and “promote cooperation between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.” While Ciattarelli could not stop cities like Newark from calling themselves “sanctuaries,” his attorney general could order local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration authorities seeking to detain the undocumented, setting aside the Murphy administration’s Immigrant Trust Directive.

During the first of two debates between the major candidates, Ciattarelli reversed course on statements he made during his contested primary and said his administration would continue to issue driver’s licenses to the undocumented. He would have to, or convince lawmakers to change the 2019 law allowing the undocumented to get a driver’s license.

As an assemblyman, Ciattarelli was one of only a handful of Republicans who voted with the Democratic majority for the law, later signed by GOP Gov. Chris Christie, allowing undocumented students to quality for in-state tuition at public colleges.

Criminal justice reform: Ciattarelli has been critical of the numerous directives issued by the Murphy administration on law enforcement, saying during the first debate that these worked to “demoralize our cops.” He says he would eliminate the mandatory “use of force” reports that all police departments are now required to make, which allow the public to see major disciplinary actions against officials, except when a police officer discharges a firearm.

On his website, Ciattarelli said he would oppose the use of civilian review boards, with or without subpoena power, to investigate police conduct and recommend disciplinary actions against officers for misconduct or abuse of power. Newark currently has such a board. Legislation pending in Trenton would allow for the creation of these boards anywhere in the state. He also said he would oppose efforts to remove the qualified immunity that now protects police from being held personally liable for actions taken in good faith that don’t violate clearly established law.

Ciattarelli has called for revising the state’s criminal-justice reform law, which essentially replaced cash bail with pretrial release or detention based on the likelihood of the accused being a danger to the public and appearing for trial.

‘I think what we learned is that bail reform has not worked as we had intended’

“What I’m hearing from local law enforcement is that they are arresting the same person two, three, four times within a six-, nine-, 12-month period,” Ciattarelli said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News. “I also just believe that if somebody has done harm to another person, or to property or has been caught with an illegal firearm, then maybe there shouldn’t be bail reform as we know it. So, I’m all for social justice, but at the same time I think what we learned is that bail reform has not worked as we had intended.”

He added that he would support limiting prison sentences to those who are offered a plea deal and turn it down to no more than 1 ½ times the deal that was proposed, saying, “That’s a form of criminal justice reform that can address social injustice.”

Marijuana legalization: Ciattarelli does not support the legalization of adult recreational use of marijuana, which voters approved last November by a more than two-to-one margin. He says he would have preferred decriminalization. He has been critical of the first law Murphy signed codifying the handling of underage weed possession or use, which did not have police alerting parents of a first offense; but lawmakers quickly changed, and Murphy signed a bill making that notification a requirement.

‘We’re not going to handcuff our cops’

“We need to observe the rule of law here in New Jersey, and I will tell you under Gov. Ciattarelli, we’re going to let police do their job,” he said during the first debate. “We’re not going to handcuff our cops.”

Corrections policy: While he has been critical of the way Murphy has handled the physical and sexual assaults at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, Ciattarelli has not provided any specific policies for improving the state’s only women’s prison. When asked about his plan as he stood outside the Hunterdon County facility, Ciattarelli said, “Our plan is to protect these inmates,” without elaborating, except to say he would have a discussion about whether to close Mahan, as Murphy has proposed.

“I don’t think the problem is with the building,” Ciattarelli said. “I think the problem’s with the administration.”

Ciattarelli has not discussed any other prison reforms, though he did appear to criticize Murphy’s decision to release several thousand inmates early or on medical furlough last year to stem the spread of COVID-19 within the prison system. More than 4,600 prisoners and 3,300 staff were infected and 52 inmates and a handful of guards died of COVID-19, most early in the pandemic.

In a tweet at the end of last year critical of the administration’s decision to vaccinate the prison population early, Ciattarelli wrote, “I can only assume that these inmates are being prioritized so that the Murphy Admin. can start trying to find the thousands of prisoners they released this year and return them to prison to complete their sentence, right, @GovMurphy? When does that start?”

Affordable housing: As an assemblyman, Ciattarelli sponsored legislation that sought to prevent municipalities from having to provide for the affordable housing obligations that built up during the 16 years when the state lacked rules that set those housing requirements. The state Supreme Court, which first decided no municipality could zone out lower-income residents in its initial Mount Laurel decision in 1975, ruled towns do have to fulfill those obligations and municipalities have been in the courts with housing advocates hammering out their plans.

When he ran for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2017, Ciattarelli said the court mandate was “going to make the suburbs poor” and that affordable housing should be concentrated in urban areas.

His platform addresses affordable housing as part of his plan for revitalizing urban areas. He said he would provide state funds to local faith-based community organizations for “non-religious” affordable housing and create a new program with local officials to identify redevelopment projects, choose developers through bidding and use “gap financing” to attract investors to build affordable and market-rate homes.

‘We’ve got to stop with the exacerbation of sprawl’

During his final debate with Murphy, Ciattarelli said “the numbers don’t make any sense,” referring to the obligations established by the judiciary. Using his hometown of Hillsborough as an example of how the court mandates don’t make sense, Ciattarelli said that “3,000 units are going up in the middle of a town where there are no jobs, there is no mass transit, and there’s one highway, one lane in each direction.” Hillsborough’s court settlement requires the township zone for only 806 affordable units.

“Should there be some affordable housing in Hillsborough? You bet there should,” he said. “We’ve got seniors, we’ve got veterans, we’ve got disabled people, and we’ve got young people trying to get a start. OK, but we’ve got to stop with the exacerbation of sprawl.”