Jack Ciattarelli speaks at a town hall in Pitman on Sept. 16, 2025. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
Republican Jack Ciattarelli, who’s running to become New Jersey’s next governor, gave the press a peek at 13 years of his federal tax returns Friday after escalating calls for financial disclosure from his Democratic opponent in the race, Rep. Mikie Sherrill.
The returns show that Ciattarelli, 63, a former state assemblyman who started and sold two medical publishing businesses, has made almost $14.9 million in income and paid almost $4 million in federal, state and local taxes since 2012.
His most profitable year came in 2017, when he retired and sold his second medical publishing business. That year, he reported almost $7.1 million in total income, the returns show. Otherwise, his total reported annual income fluctuated between $600,946 (in 2014) and more than $1.3 million (in 2016) before he retired, and $168,433 (in 2022) and $854,966 (in 2018) after he retired, the returns show.
The returns were joint returns, filed with his ex-wife Melinda. The couple’s divorce was finalized this year. She reported little income most years, with $22,138 of total income reported in 2024, the returns show.
Ciattarelli paid an average effective tax rate of 28% per year when he was working full-time, with a high of 38% in 2016, his campaign spokespeople said.
The campaign gave reporters two hours to view but not copy a towering stack of returns at Ciattarelli’s accountant’s office in Clinton. In an accompanying press release, Ciattarelli called the disclosure “an unprecedented level of transparency for any gubernatorial candidate ever.”
“Now, it’s Mikie Sherrill’s turn,” he said in a statement, urging her to release her returns back to 2018 when she was first elected to Congress.
Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, found the timing of the disclosures noteworthy — two days before the first gubernatorial debate of the general election, with Ciattarelli and Sherrill scheduled to square off at 7 p.m. Sunday at Rider in Lawrenceville.
“It’s definitely something that I would have liked to have seen earlier in the campaign, because we have a limited amount of time to weigh this stuff out, but we got it on the eve of the first debate,” he said. “It’s pretty obvious that the goal here is to not fall under the criticism on Sunday night that he hadn’t disclosed his taxes.”
But he applauded Ciattarelli for disclosing returns back to 2012, his first full year in the New Jersey Legislature. He served in the Assembly from December 2011 until January 2018, making an annual salary in that post of $49,000.
“I think that’s a good standard, is to say: ‘You saw my finances while I was in office,’” Rasmussen said.
Ciattarelli did not release his returns when he ran for governor in 2021. Then, he ran against incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy and came close to unseating him. He also ran for the post in 2017 but lost to then-Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno in the Republican primary.
Financial disclosures are important so voters can learn the sources of candidates’ income and any conflicts of interest and go to the ballot box armed with more information about the candidates, Rasmussen said.
The details of Ciattarelli’s finances could deflate his criticism of Sherrill as a wealthy politician who cashed in on her time in Congress, Rasmussen said.
“I think it sort of levels the playing field from the public perception,” Rasmussen said. “You can’t really say that Mikie’s the millionaire here, because they both are candidates who have significant assets and significant income and significant means. I’m not going to compare income brackets, but it puts them more or less at parity. They both are candidates with significant incomes.”
Sherrill and her husband, a broker at UBS Securities, reported roughly $3.2 million in income for 2024, their tax returns say. They were billed $1.08 million in federal income tax; $279,010 in New York state income tax (UBS Securities is based in New York City); and $29,002 in New Jersey state income tax in 2024.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
