KIYC: Gubernatorial election campaign ad truth test, Part 2
Both candidates are trading accusations, so Kane In Your Corner researched the truth behind the claims.
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Time is running out for New Jersey residents to decide who they want to be the next governor of New Jersey.
Both candidates are trading accusations, so Kane In Your Corner researched the truth behind the claims.
Democratic Mikie Sherrill has long proclaimed her experience as a Navy helicopter pilot, but Republican Jack Ciattarelli made headlines when he accused her of being part of a cheating scandal while she was a cadet at the Naval Academy.
"We know she was involved because she was punished. She wasn't allowed to walk (at graduation). She wasn't allowed to have her name listed in the commencement exercise program," said Ciattarelli.
Sherill admits she was disciplined, but says it was not for cheating. She says she simply refused to provide information about classmates who cheated.
MORE: KIYC: Gubernatorial election campaign ad truth test, Part 1
“You don't turn in your classmates, you don't walk at graduation,” says Sherill. “But to then be commissioned an officer in the United States Navy, I think, is something that people realize comes from the fact that the Navy felt they had trust and faith in me and my ability to do that.”
Dan Cassino, director of the FDU Poll, says Sherrill’s explanation seems logical. “We know what went on there. We know a lot of people who refused to rat out on their classmates for cheating wound up not walking.” He says if Sherrill had actively cheated, she would likely not have been allowed to graduate.
Sherrill has leveled her own incendiary comments about Ciattarelli. She accused him in a debate of killing tens of thousands of people by being complicit with pharmaceutical companies in the opioid crisis.
In an interview, Sherrill explained, “What I was talking about was the fact that Jack Ciattarelli owned a company that printed the propaganda of some of the opioid companies that were the worst offenders.”
Ciattarelli says Sherrill crossed the line.
“She said it three times that I personally killed 10,000 people, including children. Those are grounds for a defamation suit," he said.
Cassino says Sherrill’s accusation is a stretch at the very least.
“He was a very small cog in that machine,” says Cassino, “and to hold a publisher responsible for things that his clients are saying that he's publishing is stretching it a little bit.”
