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A Ciattarelli defamation lawsuit against Sherrill may violate NJ election rules
By
Mike Hayes
Published Oct 17, 2025
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By
Mike Hayes
Published Oct 17, 2025
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Republican Jack Ciattarelli has been on the campaign trail this week saying he’s filed a defamation lawsuit against Democrat Mikie Sherrill, who during last week's gubernatorial debate accused him of “killing tens of thousands” of New Jerseyans by publishing opioid misinformation.
But according to Ciattarelli’s campaign attorney, the lawsuit has yet to be filed, as the state election agency weighs whether such a move would violate state campaign finance laws.
And political observers say Ciattarelli’s focus on Sherrill’s attack, with just slightly more than two weeks to go before the election, may backfire.
Sherrill’s comments during the candidates’ second debate on Oct. 8 referenced the former state assemblymember's medical publishing company, which he founded before he entered politics. Sherrill accused Galen Publishing, which Ciattarelli sold for more than $12 million in 2017, of producing “opioid propaganda” that contributed to the opioid crisis in New Jersey.
Ciattarelli’s company published education materials for the medical industry, which critics said downplayed the dangers of opiates, according to reporting by NJ.com in 2021, when Ciattarelli last ran for governor.
Ciattarelli’s campaign attorney Mark Sheridan wrote to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Division on Oct. 15 seeking an opinion on whether the Republican nominee would violate state campaign finance laws if he spent above the $25,000 cap in personal funds to sue Sherrill, according to a copy of Sheridan’s letter to the agency, which was obtained by Gothamist.
Sheridan said the campaign plans to hire outside attorneys to handle the lawsuit and that the cost will exceed the $25,000 limit.
The agency didn't respond to questions, but if it determines the expenditures are in aid of Ciattarelli’s campaign, he may be forced to wait until after the election to file suit.
“Rep. Sherrill made two statements of purported fact claiming that Jack Ciattarelli killed tens of thousands," Sheridan said. "Those statements under New Jersey law are defamatory per se, and they were made with malicious intent and she knows them to be factually inaccurate."
Dan Cassino, professor of government and politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University, said with just a few weeks left in the campaign, candidates should be out discussing their policy proposals and their plans for improving the state — not filing legal motions over campaign rhetoric.
“Rather than attacking [her], they’re explaining this,” he said of Ciattarelli’s campaign. “That's generally going to be good for Sherrill.”
Kristopher Shields, director of the Eagleton Center at Rutgers University, said Sherrill’s broadside is something Democrats have been wanting to see more of.
“ There was a sense amongst Democrats of wanting her to see her be a little bit more aggressive and I think that that's probably part of what's behind this, too,” he said.
Sherrill’s campaign has not backed down from the accusations.
In an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial board this week, she called Ciattarelli “a total baby” for threatening to sue her over the debate comments. Her campaign has also launched the website OpioidJack.com with information about Ciattarelli’s business history.
“Perennial gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli has run three times on his history as a ‘small business owner,’" said Sherrill spokesperson Sean Higgins said in an emailed statement. But the moment Mikie Sherrill pressed him on the truth about his business, which peddled dangerous misinformation about opioids and was paid to develop an app to coach patients to get hydrocodone, he’s threatened to file a desperate lawsuit to shut the conversation down."
Ben Dworkin, director of the Rowan University Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship, said Ciattarelli’s messaging about his business record “has to relate to his argument that he is the person to lead New Jersey” in order to be effective with voters.
“When you have to talk about business and the opioid crisis, that begins to veer away because you're not able to loop your explanation of your business experience to the key issue of affordability,” he said.
According to the latest Fairleigh Dickinson University poll, with just a few weeks to go in the election, Sherrill leads Ciattarelli by 7 points, 52 to 45, with just 3% of voters saying they’re still undecided.
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new jersey
Mike Hayes
Mike Hayes covers equity and access to opportunity in New Jersey. He joined WNYC and Gothamist in 2023. Before that, he worked as a freelance journalist writing about policing and criminal justice. He has written for ProPublica, CNN, HuffPost, BuzzFeed News and The Appeal. He is also the author of the book, “The Secret Files: Bill De Blasio, The NYPD, and the Broken Promises of Police Reform.” In 2019, he was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists.
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