<H3 class=entry-header>He was leading in polls by 23 points...and here he wins by 13 points...a pretty weak margin of victory...
Turnout light in N.J. gubernatorial primary
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Voting is underway today in the New Jersey gubernatorial primary, and the Newark Star Ledger says the
turnout is light. One election official called it "one of the slowest elections" he's seen, the Ledger says.
This is one of two statewide races this year, and Republicans see this seat as
a key office they could reclaim.
The Republican primary is the big battle today. The top two candidates are former U.S. attorney Chris Christie, who's made a reputation of putting corrupt Garden State politicos behind bars, and Steve Lonegan, a former mayor of Bogota, a small borough in northern New Jersey.
Current Gov. Jon Corzine is also on the ticket on the Democrat side, but he's widely expected to win over three little-known challengers. Our colleagues at The Oval report that
Vice President Biden will be in New Jersey later today for a Corzine campaign kickoff.
The latest Quinnipiac University poll, taken May 20, showed
Christie leading Lonegan 56% to 33%. If polls prove right and Garden State voters see a Christie-Corzine matchup in November, the incumbent governor, so far, struggles -- the same poll showed Corzine trailing Christie 45% to 38%.
June 3, 2009
Ex-Prosecutor Wins G.O.P. Primary in New Jersey By
DAVID M. HALBFINGERChristopher J. Christie, a former prosecutor who sent a parade of corrupt New Jersey politicians to prison, handily won the Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday, earning the right to try to dislodge the state’s embattled Democratic incumbent,
Jon S. Corzine.
His romp past
Steven M. Lonegan, a feisty former mayor, sets the stage for what could be a fierce and expensive confrontation with the wealthy Mr. Corzine, who came to office vowing to rescue the state from financial crisis but has watched his popularity sink to record lows as the
recession made matters worse.
“I think he’s a good man, and I think he’s well-intentioned,” Mr. Christie said of Mr. Corzine. “But he is simply wrong for this job.”
The fall campaign, one of only two for governor this year (the other is in Virginia), promises to be treated to varying degrees as a referendum on
President Obama’s momentous first year or on Republicans’ continued viability — in New Jersey, if not nationally. The last Republican to win statewide was
Christie Whitman in 1997.
The White House left no doubt about its intention to support Mr. Corzine’s bid for a second term. In a rousing speech on Tuesday night at Mr. Corzine’s kickoff rally in West Orange, after his victory in a lopsided four-candidate Democratic primary, Vice President
Joseph R. Biden Jr. said the governor was “on the right side of the issues” and declared: “
Barack Obama and Joe Biden are committed to Jon Corzine’s reelection. Period. End of sentence. It’s simple.”
At bottom, the general election will confront New Jersey voters with a stark choice. Mr. Christie, a self-styled conservative, brings little economic experience but bold promises to rein in spending and cut taxes.
Mr. Corzine, an unapologetic liberal who has been hemmed in by budget deficits, assures New Jerseyans that his unpleasant medicine of tax increases and service cuts will prepare the state for a quicker, stronger rebound when recovery arrives.
But if re-election contests are verdicts on the incumbent, the burden on Mr. Corzine, even if he cannot regain the voters’ confidence, will be to paint Mr. Christie, who starts the campaign with a small lead in the polls, as an unacceptable alternative. And right out of the blocks Tuesday night, Mr. Corzine blasted Mr. Christie, without naming him, for his close ties to President
George W. Bush.
“Our opponents promise the moon,” Mr. Corzine said in a stemwinder delivered to about 1,500 supporters before Mr. Christie’s final victory margin had become clear. “They want to cut government, increase spending, slash taxes and balance the budget. They’ve got this so-called secret plan. They won’t tell you whose taxes they’re going to cut — they’re going to check with George Bush about that. They say they’ll lay off at least 10,000 employees, maybe more — but they won’t say who, or when, or at what consequence.”
Mr. Corzine said Republicans “just say we should trust them. But I don’t know about you, but I’m not about to put my trust in the same people who gave us George Bush,
Dick Cheney or
John Ashcroft, skyrocketing unemployment, a housing crisis, bank bailouts, and a war in Iraq!”
Mr. Christie, meanwhile, set out to introduce himself to New Jersey’s broad political middle, where there are nearly as many unaffiliated voters as Democrats and Republicans combined, as a forceful leader equal to the task of taming a state government that has grown too big for taxpayers to afford.
In a colorful speech to several hundred rowdy supporters in Parsippany, Mr. Christie said he had “lived a Jersey life” and wanted to make the state affordable again to working families, retirees and businesses, who he said had been driven “across our borders to Delaware, Pennsylvania — and even New York.”
“That is unacceptable,” he said.
He said Mr. Corzine was animated by a desire to “create the government of his dreams,” but had “overpromised and underdelivered,” adding: “I know you don’t want government to hold your hand; you just want them to get out of your wallet.”
And he vowed to “listen more and lecture less” as governor and to restore people’s “hope, faith and trust” in government. “It’s what I did as United States attorney," Mr. Christie said, "and you can bet it’s what I’ll do as governor.”
With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Mr. Christie led Mr. Lonegan 55 percent to 42 percent. Assemblyman Rick Merkt drew 3 percent, according to The Associated Press. Mr. Lonegan, who served 12 years as mayor of tiny Bogota, in Bergen County, before making the first of five failed bids for higher office, conceded just after 10 p.m., apologizing to about 150 supporters in East Brunswick for falling short but vowing to help defeat Mr. Corzine. He said conservatives had made their presence in the party felt. “We are here to stay,” he said. “You are here to stay.”
Mr. Christie mainly avoided being pinned down in the primary, resisting calls to issue an economic plan, or to detail what agencies or programs he would cut. But he did take plainly conservative positions on school vouchers, restrictions on abortion rights, and rolling back regulation, particularly on the environment.
At his rally, Mr. Corzine made clear he would go after Mr. Christie on social issues as well as pocketbook ones, saying Republicans indeed wanted smaller government — “small enough to slip under your bedroom door” or to “dictate their own religious beliefs to the rest of us.”
Kenny Porpora, Nate Schweber and Erik White contributed reporting.
They are expected to challenge Monday's action in court.
