Bill and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week
The former radio host made an attempt to get a fellow Republican thrown off the primary ballot, it did not go according to plan
Alexander may have had a bad day, but Bill Spadea’s dreadful week on the campaign trail is a sight for sore eyes.
To begin, the Legacy of Liberty Political Action Committee (LoL), a super PAC supporting Spadea for Governor, scheduled an event to honor Spadea that was supposed to be headlined by former Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump. The event drew scrutiny because Trump is now the host of the Saturday night show My View with Lara Trump on FOX News. FOX has a policy that prohibits on-air talent from stumping for political candidates, leading Trump to pull out of the event. Trump was brought on as a FOX News Contributor in 2021 and left the network after her father-in-law, Donald Trump, annouced his bid for the presidency after the 2022 midterms. If you thought that was disappointing, there is more!
In a fight for New Jersey’s MAGA vote, Spadea was in court this week challenging the legitimacy of signatures collected by former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac. In a direct attempt to have Kranjac thrown off the primary ballot, the Spadea campaign alleged that Kranjac did not gather the sufficient number of signatures needed to appear on the ballot. NJ recently changed the rule for how many signatures were needed for gubernatorial candidates from 1,000 to 2,500.
Kranjac joined the race for governor in late January. However, he is widely considered a spoiler candidate because of his late start. Plus, many insiders had already chosen who they wanted to support before Mario jumped in. Kranjac could have been considered a serious candidate if he had started his campaign a year earlier. The venture capitalist is primarily backed by Mike Crispi and the America First Republicans of New Jersey to split the MAGA vote with Spadea.
On April 2, a judge ruled that Kranjac would remain on the ballot. Kranjac celebrated the win the following day on X. “Bill tried to disenfranchise 1,258 of my signers - people suffering from strokes, the disabled, and moms with children in their arms,” The former mayor said. “I’m the only candidate with a comprehensive plan for election integrity.”
Spadea defended his attempt to throw Kranjac off the ballot, calling the move was based on “election integrity” and “ensuring that only qualified voters signed his petition.”
“Over the course of our review we identified hundreds of Democrats, unregistered voters, forged signatures and even a dead voter who signed his petition,” Spadea said on X. “Just like President Trump, our campaign is serious about election integrity reforms.”
As if losing in court was not enough, an X account known as Genius Chad dropped an AI song called “L’s on L’s on L’s” that made its rounds Thursday night. The song summed up Spadea’s lackluster week on the campaign trail.
Bill Spadea is looked at as Jack Ciattarelli’s chief political rival in this race despite playing from behind as this ugly primary enters the final two months. Having Mario Kranjac on the ballot would benefit Ciattarelli. Expect the Spadea campaign to continue pursuing attempts at having Kranjac tossed off the ballot.
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