MADISON - Mario Kranjac was a bit late to the governor's race, but the one-time "Trumpy Mayor" of Englewood Cliffs is trying hard to make an impact.

Or more precisely, attack Bill Spadea (pictured above).

A recent release from Kranjac continues an assault on Spadea, claiming the former radio host is not

sufficiently anti-abortion.

"The only people who support radical, late-term abortion and taxpayer funding of abortion are the Democrats we'll be running against in November - not the voters," Kranjac said.  "Bill should just run in the Democrat Primary since he's surrendered on the fight for life seven months before election day."

Rather than unpack the specifics here, it is worth wondering what Kranjac is up to.

Some in Spadea's camp suggest Kranjac is trying to take votes from Spadea to help Jack Ciattarelli.

Talking about that Tuesday, Spadea kind of shrugged and said, "This is Jersey politics."

But then he added that he's not going to dwell on this, saying that Kranjac should not be taken seriously.

As for Kranjac, a spokesman for his campaign said:

“Spadea and Ciattarelli are two sides of the same pro-abortion, anti-Trump, RINO coin.  We will make that very clear, very soon.”

So there.

Spadea made his comments after speaking at Fairleigh Dickinson University as part of a continuing series involving gubernatorial candidates.

The best question of the day was posed by Robert Martin, a former Republican state senator from Morris Plains. He wanted to know if Spadea disagrees with Donald Trump in any way.

Spadea's answer was interesting. His points of disagreement involved Trump being "not Trumpy enough" if you catch the drift.  And they were all in the past.

He faulted the then-president for not using the military when George Floyd-related protests got out of hand, not "opening" the country sooner than he did during Covid and not investigating alleged chicanery in the 2016 election. Trump won that one.

Spadea also stressed his independence and said that is why GOP leaders do not like him. Along those lines, he said:

"I'm not in a cult. I'm an independent thinker who happens to support the president."

This led to another question.

Do you expect Trump to endorse in the gubernatorial primary?

Spadea said he expected the president to stay out of it.

If, by chance, Trump endorses Ciattarelli, Spadea said. "It won't affect us at all."

But if he gets a Trump endorsement, the race is over. As Spadea put it:

"Jack can't recover from that."