EDITOR'S NOTE: Here is another installment of periodic mutterings about the governor's race.

One of the crazier stories in recent New Jersey political history was a 1994 ordinance in Raritan Borough that banned cursing. Say a bad word in public within town borders and risk a fine.

Not surprisingly, the measure prompted nationwide jokes.

Police never enforced the law and it soon faded into obscurity. The ordinance was rescinded in either 2011, or 2021. There seems to be uncertainty about when it was actually removed, but all agree it is now gone.

Does anyone still remember, or care, about the law?

Mikie Sherrill does.

A Raritan councilman at the time and proponent of the measure was Jack Ciattarelli, the current Republican candidate for governor.

Showing that the gubernatorial election is already reaching a bizarre place, the Sherrill campaign has created an anti-Ciattarelli website called "Jack's Not For Jersey."

This creation, among other things, brings up Raritan's no cursing ordinance, using a rather obvious headline:

"What the F..."  (The site uses the actual word, but we like to be dignified.)

It then asks:

"Would a real New Jerseyan try to ban cursing?"

It then answers its own question.

"No, but Jack did."

One of the overall themes of Ciattarelli's campaign is that he is a "Jersey guy" through and through. This website creation clearly is designed to have a little fun with that.
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As for Ciattarelli, his campaign is publicizing an assortment of upcoming rallies and business stops all over the state.

They include stops in Monmouth,  Middlesex, Gloucester and Bergen counties, among others, plus a Boardwalk tour in Seaside Heights on Labor Day.

This coming Saturday, Ciattarelli has scheduled five stops in Passaic and Paterson. That includes visits to a restaurant, a dry cleaners and a barber shop. Later, he's going to a minor league baseball game in Sussex County.

A few weeks ago, he spent a day touring parks in Newark.

The goal here seems simple - go where GOP candidates do not normally go. He also must know that Donald Trump did well last fall in Passaic County.

On this score, he has been more publicly active than Sherrill has.

Ciattarelli, in fact, says she is "missing in action."

That's not really true. She did just have a press event on Thursday on ways to help small businesses.

* * *

When Sherrill was first elected to the House in 2018, her congressional district overlapped a bit with state Legislative District 25 in Morris County.

One of the assemblymen at the time was Republican Michael Patrick Carroll.

Carroll relinquished his seat in 2019 to run - unsuccessfully - for county surrogate.

But he is still in a way overlapping with Sherrill.

Former Assemblyman Carroll has been a steady presence on Sherrill's campaign Facebook page.

His theme is that Sherrill talks too much about Trump and national issues that have nothing to do with being governor.
After Sherrill celebrated the 90th anniversary of Social Security's creation on social media, Carroll replied:

"Will there come a time when one of your posts actually deals with the office you’re seeking?"

Asked about his social media activity on Sherrill's page, Carroll said in an email:

"I dislike vapidity."

A spokesman for Ciattarelli said:

“Glad to have her waste her $$$ on that. She’s rehashing same attack Murphy used in 2021.

No one cared then and no one cares now.”