By Philip Sean Curran
Somerset County Assemblyman and Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli said Jan. 12 that he had been diagnosed last year with cancer, but he said it will not force him to quit the governor’s race., Speaking to reporters, he said that on Nov. 15, he had the cancer and lymph nodes on his neck surgically removed and that he receives weekly radiation therapy. He will have to miss campaign events this month and into early February, but he said he would be back at “full speed” by the latter part of February., “My intention was to power through these treatments without any impact on my campaign, but, as so many other New Jerseyans unfortunately know, cancer is a tough adversary,” he said., Mr. Ciattarelli, 55, said that last fall, he had noticed a lump in his neck, later diagnosed as oropharyngeal cancer affecting the back of the throat and tonsils. He has been getting radiation treatment five times a week since the middle of December, with the treatments due to end Jan.31., according to his campaign., “It was important to me that I be fully transparent with my health, and shoot straight with both voters and the media about my condition,” he said. “One, because honesty matters when you aspire to being governor of New Jersey. And, two, because I am hopeful that my story encourages someone else to get any suspicious lumps or sudden an unusual snoring checked out immediately.”
