In their first joint appearance as official party nominees, Jack Ciattarelli and Mikie Sherrill spoke before the New Jersey Business and Industry Association’s quadrennial “Meet the Gubernatorial Primary Winners” reception on Tuesday evening, a decades-old tradition where business leaders get a chance to meet, greet and ask questions of the candidates.
For Ciattarelli, it was like the Republican was on his home turf. “Listen, as an MBA, CPA and two-time business owner, if we can’t hit it out of the park with this crowd, we’re in trouble,” he said.
Ciattarelli did not mention his Democratic opponent by name, but returned to a well-known theme for Republicans.
“I do not want to be governor of a state that’s ranked year over year over year as one of the worst places in the country to do business,” said Ciattarelli. “In the old days … business would look primarily at two things, taxes and regulations. Today they look at four things, taxes, regulations, labor pool and energy. And to be quite candid, we’re sucking wind on all four.”
Sherrill skipped the reception beforehand and showed up as the evening’s program was just beginning. It wasn’t exactly a tough crowd for the Democrat, but she didn’t appear all that comfortable speaking in front of a business community that has frequently felt ignored by her party.
“CNBC has rated New Jersey 44th for the cost of doing business and 48th for business friendliness,” she said. “I don’t have to tell all of you here those numbers, because I know many of you have told me about your problems and issues trying to navigate our state.
“It’s unacceptable, and I will change it as governor,” she said. “And so I’m committed to streamlining and simplifying state processes through which new businesses receive their licenses and overhaul the state permitting process.”
