TOMS RIVER, NJ – A top advisor for New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Bill Spadea and a paid consultant for the Elect Common Sense organization says John Bramnick has the best chance to win against the Democrats in a November general election.
During a conversation with Shore News Network last week, Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore said he is confident that Bill Spadea will win the June primary election but had reservations about the ultra-conservative former radio host winning a general election against New Jersey Democrats in a predominantly blue state.
“I think Spadea will absolutely win the primary,” Gilmore said. Gilmore expressed confidence in his client but admitted, “Bramnick is probably the best chance to defeat Democrats, I agree.”
Gilmore is a senior advisor to Elect Common Sense, a ‘charity organization’ founded by Spadea. That charity paid Spadea $225,000 since its creation to Spadea; however, it claims once the former radio host became a candidate, that monthly payment stopped.
Gilmore is paid $5,000 per month by the ‘organization’ headed by Elizabeth Nader.
He is also reportedly a lobbyist for a powerful Democrat aligned lobbying firm in South Jersey, Optimus Partners.
In September, Gilmore raised eyebrows after attending a fundraiser for former New Jersey Democrat Governor James McGreevey. He also served as a legal consultant for 1868 Public Affairs, a political lobbying firm headed by New Jersey Democrat Party Chairman Leroy Jones.
In 2019, a federal jury convicted Gilmore for lying about a bank loan and for failure to pay payroll taxes to the IRS collected by his firm Gilmore and Monahan.
Gilmore attempted to appeal his conviction, but that effort failed.
He later stepped down as chairman of the Ocean County GOP, replaced by his nemesis, accountant Frank B. Holman. After being pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2021, Gilmore eventually returned to power, defeating Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy in a hotly contested election for Ocean County GOP Chairman.
Now, Spadea is under fire after filing affidavits with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission showing that between 2021 and November 2025, his Common Sense Club organization paid the former New Jersey 101.5 radio host $225,000 in payments through an LLC that bears his name.
As for Gilmore’s comments regarding Bramnick, he began his political career in 1984, where he served on the Plainfield city council. He served in the state assembly from 2003 to 2021 in a heavily Democrat-controlled district before becoming a state senator in 2022.
Of all of the candidates running for office, Bramnick is the only candidate to have effectively defeated Democrat opponents in statewide elections, in a Democrat leaning district.
Jack Ciattarelli has served on the Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders (2007-2021). After that, he served from 2011 to 2018 as a New Jersey State Assembly member. He did not run for re-election in order to run for Governor in 2017 and 2021. In 2017, he lost the primary election to former Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno. In 2021, he lost the general election to New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy.
Bill Spadea has been trying to become a politician in New Jersey since 2006, when he debated running for U.S. Senate. In 2012, he unsuccessfully ran for state legislature to fill the vacant seat of then recently deceased assemblyman Peter Bondi. Spadea lost that election by a 3 to 1 vote.
In 2004, Spadea ran for Congress but lost in a landslide to Democrat Rush Holt.