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State Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli (R-Somerset) announces his gubernatorial campaign in October.

(Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

The first state-sponsored debates for Democrats and Republicans running for New Jersey governor will be held May 9. Leading up to that, NJ Advance Media is profiling the four Democrats and two Republicans who have qualified for those debates, leading off with this simple question: "Why are you running?"

TRENTON -- Jack Ciattarelli made a promise to himself when he was elected to the New Jersey Assembly in 2011.

The Republican from Somerset County vowed to serve no more than three terms, or six years -- the same limit he imposed on himself when he won seats on his local council and county freeholder board in the past.

But last year, about halfway through term No. 3, Ciattarelli realized something. As a Republican in the Democratic-controlled state Legislature, he hadn't achieved what he set out to: helping reform property taxes, school funding, the tax code, and public worker benefits.

So the 55-year-old set his sights on something bigger, just down the hall from the Assembly chambers in the Statehouse: the governor's office.

"What I've learned is that as a freshman or sophomore in the minority, you can't achieve that kind of seismic change," Ciattarelli said during an interview with NJ Advance Media at a Trenton cafe. "The only way to achieve that kind of seismic change is by sitting in the governor's chair."

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2017 N.J. GOVERNOR CANDIDATES

JACK CIATTARELLI

Party affiliation:

Republican

Age:

55

Residence:

Hillsborough

Occupation:

Member of the state Assembly from Somerset County since 2011; former Somerset County freeholder and Raritan Borough councilman; former owner of a medical publishing business and former accountant

Family:

Wife Melinda Ciattarelli; four children: Alexa, Jake, A.J., and Matthew

And some political experts say he's closer to the Republican nomination than polls show -- even after being sidelined by cancer early in his campaign.

Ciattarelli is one of five Republicans running in the June 6 primary for the party's nod to succeed Gov. Chris Christie, a term-limited Republican who is set to leave office in January.

Christie's second-in-command, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, has long been the expected GOP front-runner. And the most recent poll, from Quinnipiac University in March, showed Guadango leading the primary with 28 percent of the vote. Ciattarelli was at 3 percent.

But Ciattarelli earned coveted endorsements from seven county Republican parties to Guadagno's nine.

Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said many Republicans are "suffering from Christie fatigue" and Guadagno may be hurt by the association, even as she tries to distance herself from her boss. Ciattarelli, meanwhile, has been vocally critical of Christie for more than a year.

"Compared to Guadagno, he is the outsider," Murray said.

Ben Dworkin, director of the Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University, said Ciattarelli also has charm. The question, Dworkin said, is if he can bump up his name recognition.

"He gets a very positive response when people meet him," Dworkin said. "I think he's running a very disciplined, message-oriented campaign. But because he is so unknown to most of the public, it's going to require millions of dollars being spent in those last few weeks of the primary on network TV."

Speaking of his name, it's pronounced "Chit-a-relli." That's the way his father -- the son of Italian immigrants -- says it. (His mother goes by the "American" pronunciation: "See-at-a-relli").

Ciattarelli grew up in a middle-class family in heavily Italian-American Raritan Borough in Somerset County. Of his parents, his mother was the only one with a high school diploma.

"They just preached upon us the important of hard work," Ciattarelli said. "Life is not supposed to be easy, but if you work hard, it can turn out OK."

At Bridgewater-Raritan High School West, Ciattarelli proved adept at math. So his father suggested he become a certified public accountant.

Ciattarelli majored in accounting at Seton Hall University and got a business degree. After leaving college in 1986, he practiced corporate finance for a year but didn't like it. Then he went into public accounting with a small firm but didn't like it, either.

"The services provided by CPAs are necessary evils," Ciattarelli said. "And when something's a necessary evil, people don't appreciate it."

But his biggest client was a medical publisher, and he left the firm to work for that business in sales and marketing in 1992.

"I fell in love," he said.

Medical publishers create the guides and materials for doctors, nurses and pharmacists who need to get continuing education credits to maintain their license to practice.

In 1995, Ciattarelli started his own medical publishing business. Two years later, he got an offer from Wall Street to sell, and he bit.

It wasn't long before he launched another medical publishing firm, Galen Publishing. Tax returns that Ciattarelli made public recently showed he and his wife made about $1.25 million in 2016 and about $3.8 million over the past five years.

Ciattarelli said he recently sold Galen and is now retired from private work.

In practically every stump speech, Ciattarelli champions his business and accounting backgrounds.

"What I think people want and what people need is an MBA-CPA, entrepreneur-business owner, a hands-on, roll-up-your-sleeves CEO to address the fiscal-economic crisis that we have in this state," he said.

That's why fellow Assemblyman John DiMaio (R-Warren) said he endorsed Ciattarelli.

"He's gonna know how to run down the numbers," DiMaio said.

In the late 1980s, the mayor of Raritan -- a longtime family friend -- approached a 27-year-old Ciattarelli about running for the borough council.

He lost by 12 votes.

But Ciattarelli ran the next year and won, even though Raritan was a largely Democratic town. He took office in 1990.

After three terms, he skipped running for re-election, setting up the six-year pattern that carried on in his political life.

Adele Goetsch, a Raritan resident and family friend, recalled that Ciattarelli saw he had a flare for politics when his mother held picnics at their home.

"The seniors would go crazy for him," Goetsch said. "He connects with people. I still see it now. When he's in a room, you know he's there."

About a decade after his time on the council ended, Ciattarelli was approached to run for a spot on the Somerset County freeholder board.

He won in 2006, served two terms, and was set to retire from politics again. But GOP leadership approached him about running for the state Assembly.

Ciatarelli won and has served central Jersey's 16th District since 2011. The district includes parts of Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex and Somerset counties.

Ciattarelli notes that every time he's won an election, it's been where Democrats outnumber Republicans. Experts refer to him as a moderate.

Ciattarelli stresses he has "never compromised" his Republican principles -- such as seeking smaller government and lower taxes.

"But more than anything, I've been a problem-solver," he said. "I'm not rigid in my ideology. I've never been a hyper-partisan, because that does not solve problems."

Ciattarelli announced his gubernatorial campaign in October. Not long after, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. A tumor on his tonsil leaked into two lymph nodes.

Doctors told him he was fortunate, and they detected the illness "extremely early" and the form of cancer was "very curable."

He underwent robotic surgery and radiation therapy and took a three-week break from the campaign in the winter. Doctors said in January he was cancer-free.

"I feel great," Ciattarelli said.

He and his wife, Melinda, have been married for 23 years and live with their family in Hillsborough. They have four children: Alexa, 21; Jake, 19; A.J., 18; and Matthew, 16.

Like many Republicans, Ciattarelli was openly critical of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. But now that Trump is president?

"I'm an American first," he said. "And whenever an election is over, whoever has won fair and square has my support. I want to see each and every president succeed."

On the campaign trail, Ciattarelli is touting a five-point plan to help New Jersey that focuses first on reforming the state's school funding formula, which he says is the key reason behind the state's famously high property taxes.

On taxes, he wants to make student loans tax deductible and institute 10-year phase out of corporate business taxes.

On employee benefits reform, he wants to discontinue platinum health plans, have pensions for newly hired teachers paid for by local school districts and not the state, end unused sick pay payouts going forward, and cap previously accumulated payouts.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.