LONG BRANCH - It's Jack Ciattarelli's team, but for a while Wednesday, Jim Gannon had equal billing.

The LG candidate and Morris County sheriff said his presence on the Republican ticket shows precisely what a Ciattarelli Administration would be about - public safety.

Speaking on the Boardwalk on a brilliant October afternoon, Gannon highlighted some of what he has done in Morris County. There is the Hope One program and van, which literally travels around meeting people in need. It originated in Morris and has expanded across the state. Gannon was flanked by about a half dozen New Jersey sheriffs.

When Ciattarelli came to the mic, he stressed his "law and order" program.

He is against "cashless bail," and will repeal the state's immigrant trust directive, which limits cooperation between local cops and ICE.

Ciattarelli also opposes the release of police internal affairs reports and civilian review boards.
The Republican candidate often talks about "flash mobs" on the Jersey Shore and elsewhere, and in particular, a disturbance in Secaucus over Labor Day weekend.

These gatherings are sparked online, so doesn't that make them hard to stop?

Ciattarelli said a K-9 patrol can help. He then offered an analogy.

"Here's what I do when I'm driving over the limit, I see a cop car, I slow down."

The candidate also went after Mikie Sherrill, who was briefly a federal prosecutor. His campaign provided cases in which it said Sherrill offered too generous plea bargains to various offenders.

While plea bargains are always controversial in the political arena, they are quite common in the courtroom. The contention here was that Sherrill lacked the competence to fully prosecute the cases.

Earlier in the day, Ciattarelli visited a number of diners with some outside help.

That was Byron Donalds, a congressman from Florida and a candidate for governor in that state in 2026.

Donalds, who is seen as a rising star in GOP circles,  spoke to a large and enthusiastic crowd at a diner in Old Bridge.

Commenting outside, he said it's all about winning,

And winning does not always come down to Democrats and Republicans.
"It's about what makes sense for people and Jack is the guy who can deliver that," he said. "We've been watching the race. He looks to be in great shape here."

Just for the record, the most recent poll - this one by Rutgers-Eagleton - gives Sherrill a 5-point lead.