Mikie Sherrill accused Jack Ciattarelli of deceptively editing her remarks. He made the same argument last week.
The Republican Governors Association is running an ad that suggests Mikie Sherrill wants to raise energy bills shortly after Jack Ciattarelli accused her of misrepresenting his own positions.
New Jersey Republican Jack Ciattarelli’s backers released a widely circulated ad that makes it seem his Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, said her policies will cost “an arm and a leg,” taking her point out of context.
But Ciattarelli accused Sherrill of doing the same thing to him just last week with comments he made about taxes.
The two candidates have been constantly attacking each other in the lead-up to a competitive November election for New Jersey governor. Both Sherrill and Ciattarelli have made affordability a flagship issue of the race and argue that the other would raise the already-high cost of living in New Jersey, from taxes to utility bills.
In a seven-figure ad buy, a PAC funded by the Republican Governors Association is pushing out a deceptively edited clip that shows Sherrill saying: “You need to move into clean power. It’s going to cost you an arm and a leg but if you’re a good person you’ll do it.”
Ciattarelli shared a similarly edited clip of Sherrill’s remarks and claimed on X over the weekend that she “said it herself” that she would make electric bills more expensive in the state.
But Sherrill’s campaign said the ad manipulates her words “into appearing to have said the precise opposite of what she actually said.”
Without those edits, Sherrill was actually criticizing unsuccessful Democratic messaging that over time has made people think clean energy would result in higher electric bills, while making the case that the state should invest in “clean, cheap power.”
The clip is from a late March interview Sherrill gave on the Dean Obeidallah Show, in which she said:
“We have to do better … sometimes our messaging in the Democratic Party — not great,” she said. “Meaning, I think for years, we’ve sort of said we need to move into clean power, and there’s almost been this understanding, it’s going to cost you an arm and a leg, but if you’re a good person, you’ll do it.”
She goes on to argue that New Jersey has been “sleeping on solar,” and not investing enough in clean energy that could lower utility costs in the way other states, like Texas, are.
“Now that we’re actually in that place that we promised, it was going to be cheaper than any other source of power, people are skeptical,” she said. “So I have to tell people in New Jersey like, look, Texas is leading in solar, and everybody in New Jersey sort of feels like, if Texas is doing it, they’re not doing it because it’s just clean. It’s got to be economical, right?”
Affordability is a key issue in this race — particularly high utility bills, which Ciattarelli blames on Democratic policies and Sherrill blames on PJM, the regional grid operator.
Sean Higgins, a spokesperson for Sherrill’s campaign, said the RGA ad is “a false, incoherent life preserver thrown to a desperate, lying candidate who’s covering up his 100% MAGA agenda that would only drive up costs.” Sherrill’s campaign frequently attacks Ciattarelli for his support of President Donald Trump, particularly regarding economic impacts from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“This is a blatantly misleading, desperate smear from Jack Ciattarelli’s MAGA allies and makes crystal clear they’re terrified that Mikie’s plan for a State of Emergency on Utility Costs is dominating the in-state conversation,” Higgins also said, referring to her promise to freeze utility rates for a year.
» READ MORE: Jack Ciattarelli’s lawyer told Mikie Sherill to cease and desist. Her lawyer said no.
Ciattarelli’s campaign’s response? “Cry me a river,” said Chris Russell, a consultant for Ciattarelli.
“Congresswoman Sherrill got caught telling the truth — a rarity for her,” Russell said. “She is 100% right that failed policies like offshore wind farms and electric vehicle mandates, and choking off clean energy sources like natural gas and nuclear — which she voted for in Washington and Trenton Democrats pushed in New Jersey — ARE costing people an arm and a leg.”
Izzi Levy, a spokesperson for the Democratic Governors Association, said Ciattarelli’s “MAGA allies are deliberately twisting” Sherrill’s words, while RGA spokesperson Courtney Alexander defended the ad and said the Democratic nominee “wants you to believe she didn’t say what she’s caught on camera saying.”
Sherrill’s allies’ argument that the ad is false mirrors one that Ciattarelli’s campaign made just last week after Sherrill’s team began pushing the message that the GOP nominee is calling for a 10% sales tax in New Jersey.
That message stemmed from an ad from a PAC funded by the Democratic Governors Association that had a selectively edited audio clip of Ciattarelli saying “a 10% sales tax on everything, including food and clothing.” It implies that he is calling for that policy, but he was describing Tennessee’s policy in the recorded remarks.
Ciattarelli’s campaign lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter to Sherrill’s campaign to stop claiming Ciattarelli wants to increase sales taxes, but Sherrill’s campaign lawyer said they would keep going, arguing that Ciattarelli’s repeated mentions of the other state’s policy amounts to a proposal. (Her campaign continued the attack on Monday.)
Ciattarelli did not explicitly say whether he supports increasing sales taxes but rather said that “every option is on the table” for restructuring the state’s taxes.