Most of the billboards on the Garden State Parkway aren’t too memorable. Casinos. Auto sales. But then there’s one advertising the services of a personal injury lawyer, Jon Bramnick, “the funniest lawyer in New Jersey,” the sign proclaims.
Now Bramnick, who is also a state senator, may be about to become the funniest candidate for governor in New Jersey. He says he will formally announce his run for the Republican primary in an appearance at the Stress Factory Comedy Club in New Brunswick later this month.
He has long liked to mix his politics with comedy, regularly performing stand-up at the Stress Factory, and at conventions and political events.
“The one I start off with. I go, ‘I’m a New Jersey politician, I’m a state senator, so you can trust everything I’m about to tell you.’ That always gets a laugh,” Bramnick said.
Bramnick, 70, is a Republican from Westfield, N.J., and has served in the state legislature for 21 years. He won his election in November by seven points, in a district that President Joe Biden won by 18 points. Even so, he knows he faces a steep challenge because he’s one of the last moderate Republicans in the New Jersey State Legislature, and the Republican electorate in primaries skews to the far right.
“I’ll start with praying,” he says, cracking himself up. “You need to be a happy warrior and I see more and more candidates either spewing hate or mad and I don’t think that sells.” Bramnick plans to sell his moderate politics to Republicans who he believes are frustrated that the party hasn’t won a statewide election since 2009. Bramnick says he’ll try to convince Republican voters that far right candidates can’t get elected.
“You can’t be neutral on Donald Trump. You can’t be neutral on democracy. You can’t be neutral on January 6th and expect New Jersey voters to vote for you,” Bramnick said. “You have to tell the truth about these incidents and about Donald Trump. And if you don’t, and you try to walk this fine line, the voters in New Jersey are not going to vote for the Republican. You have to stand up and when you see things in your party that are bad, you’ve got to say them.”
Bramnick supports abortion rights and gun control, and he was the lone Republican to join Democrats on a bill that would allow same-day voter registration. He sides with his party when it comes to cutting spending and supporting law enforcement.
He had toyed with running for governor in 2021, but he would have had to give up his seat in the legislature for a primary race that was being dominated by Trump Republicans. Bramnick thinks the 2025 race will be different.
“By being patient, I think that the views have changed about Donald Trump, and I also have a four year term,” he said, and again, he laughs. “Because I get to stay in the legislature, even if I were to lose. So I get the best of both worlds.”
The primary for the governor’s race is not until June 2025. But Republican Jack Ciatarelli, a former state senator who ran for governor in 2017 and 2021, has already announced he will run. Steven Fulop, the Democratic mayor of Jersey City is also running early.
Bramnick first got into standup comedy after reading an article about competitions to become named the funniest rabbi, the funniest accountant or the funniest lawyer. But he didn’t try it, until his wife registered him for a funniest lawyer in New York City competition for his 38th birthday in 1991. She told him about it a week before the performance. He came in second, and then tried the competition for funniest lawyer in New Jersey. He won that competition for three years in a row in the 1980s and then the competition was canceled.
“And let the other lawyers know it’s trademarked,” Bramnick said about his billboard proclaiming him to be the funniest lawyer in New Jersey. In 2019, he published a book, Why People Don’t Like You.
The obvious question, of course, is what Bramnick thinks about being involved in politics in New Jersey.
“That you have to take ethics every year, and there’s a full time ethics officer,” Bramnick said. So I went in last week for ethics training and she says, ‘sit down, Senator.’ I said, ‘okay.’ She says ‘You ready for your ethics training?’ And I said, I am. She said, “Rule number one, you can’t take cash in an envelope.’ And I said, ‘I never take the envelope.’
“She goes, ‘Rule number two, there’s no joking during ethics training.’