Bramnick's baggage on Trump, women, raises electability concerns.

Anti-GOP, anti-woman comments from the self-proclaimed "RINO" and "funniest lawyer in New Jersey" has people questioning his viability.

Westfield, NJ - Ending perhaps the worst-kept secret in NJ politics, Senator Jon Bramnick of Union County will announce his run for Governor tomorrow. Bramnick’s widespread use of his self-appointed, and trademarked, nickname “The Funniest Lawyer in New Jersey” is only overshadowed by his use of the term RINO (“Republican-In-Name-Only”).

Bramnick’s campaign has also teased that the launch will include video endorsements from “national figures,” which CJN has learned could mean an endorsement from longtime Bramnick friend and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, as well as other allies from Bramnick’s time as protégé to Governor Chris Christie.

This has concerned many within the party that Bramnick is out of touch. Bramnick himself has acknowledged in multiple interviews that most Republicans call him a “RINO,” a term that he has embraced. For other Republicans, this joke isn’t landing.

“We need someone who is going to unite the party, not pick fights with it,” said Sussex County GOP Chair Joe Labarbera.

According to an internal poll conducted by the Sussex GOP, 65% of unaffiliated Sussex voters have conservative bona fides. They also have little faith in the Republican Party’s ability to produce a conservative candidate that can win, especially in a county that voted overwhelmingly for former President Donald Trump. In 2020, President Trump won 51, 701 votes to President Biden’s 34,481, but to Bramnick, the Sussex-model will set Republicans up to fail.

Bramnick, like former President Trump, often takes to Twitter to voice his anxieties with Republicans.

For chairmen like Labarbera, this rhetoric displays a tone-deafness.

”We already are the minority party in New Jersey,” he confessed with frustration. “Our conciliation to the left-wing democrats has lead to defeat. It’s the left-wing democrats that have the bad behavior and are extreme.”

Bramnick has often countered by suggesting that he is more electable than other candidates in a general election, the same difference John McCain made a career out of: thrashing his own party and making inroads with the opposite side to get what he wants. This strategy may be undermined, however, by continued questions about the work of his law firm, Bramnick Law, and whether or not his comments regarding sexual assault victims would affect him down the ballot in a statewide election.

The New Jersey Globe reported in 2019 that Bramnick pledged to help those accused of sexual assault by vilifying the victim.

“We will investigate your case and seek to discredit your accuser,” the firm’s website claims. The pitch to potential clients, the firm says it can work “to get the charges [of sexual assault] dismissed or at least downgraded.”

“This is what we do — or, I should say, this is what my partners do,” Bramnick said to Politico in 2019. “You want a criminal defense lawyer who’s going to be aggressive to someone who’s lying about you.”

Bramnick’s office has since changed the website’s language, but a CJN investigator found the previous language.

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