2009 New Jersey Governor's Race

[Meeker]

If it helps you JSojourner, Oklahoma would be blue and Alaska would be gray if they weren't in the special category of their own.

[Meeker]

Random question about New Jersey ballots: Does the column/line format hurt candidates towards the end of the ballot at all? It seems to me like a lot of people might be tempted to split their ticket at some point to avoid the feeling of being a party hack and voting exactly with the party line. Maybe that's just a Washington thing (not to sound arrogant or imply that one is better than the other; there's just different political cultures regarding party affiliation and loyalty in different parts of the country...)

[Meeker]

8 PM EST

[Meeker]

looks like his victory celebration has already started?

http://www.christiefornj.com/blog/2009/06/01/victory-night-celebration/

lol @ starting the party at 7:30 PM

[Meeker]

Now this folks... this is embarrassing:

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(Political Wire)

[Meeker]

Every local newscast in New Jersey will show that thing for free at the 5, 6 and 11 o'clock broadcasts and then again on their morning show, so mission accomplished IMO.

[Meeker]

Every local newscast in New Jersey will show that thing for free at the 5, 6 and 11 o'clock broadcasts and then again on their morning show, so mission accomplished IMO.

I doubt it, I didn't see it on the local news, not even News12 New Jersey

Give it a few days; they'll run it as a process story after it's been on the air for a bit.

[Meeker]

Fine, I'll admit to knowing little about NJ media markets.

But I stand by my general point that an ad like that would be good at getting free media in an average state.

[Meeker]

I had a weird dream last night that Corey Booker almost beat Corzine in some sort of second primary. I was also living in a monastery though.

[Meeker]

New RAS poll out at 5pm.

I was just about to post this.

I'll guess and say:

Christie 47%
Corzine 38%
Daggett 7%

Close:

Christie: 48%
Corzine: 41%
Daggett: 6%

[Meeker]

Corzine released a new ad hammering Christie's driving record, saying he got preferential treatment by doing the "do you know who I am" thing at a traffic stop.

throwing his weight around, lmao. New Jersey is awesome

^^^

Pure genius.

[Meeker]

My SUPER-COOL-AND-INSIGHTFUL-INSIDER-REPORT can be found here: https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=102503.msg2168331#msg2168331

[Meeker]

They wanted us to phone bank today. Starting at 10 AM. On a Sunday. Same script as yesterday. My favorite quote was the field organizer who proudly proclaimed that "The Corzine campaign has a different message each week." The girl sitting next to me literally choked on her water.

I managed to get out of it and instead was tasked with adding vote-by-mail applications from Rutgers and Rowan to their database. Only the folks who were getting the students to fill out the applications clearly didn't understand how they worked because they had them write their home address as their mailing address meaning that that's where the ballot will be mailed to - not the students' dorms. There were literally hundreds like this.

At that point I just gave up and started following the German election results on my cell phone.

[Meeker]

Registering students to vote with their homes as mailing addresses is, like, College Democrats league stuff.  If that.  It always amazes me how few higher-up people in politics understand the kind of follow-through you need to get people to actually cast ballots for you.

I also like how they expected you to unironically read "For President Obama. For Democratic values. For New Jersey." out loud in front of an actual person.

Are you sure this isn't just a joke and the actual Democratic machine in New Jersey is secretly recruiting voters for a 60-40 landslide?

I would not at all be surprised to find out in three months that my entire trip was secretly filmed for a hilarious new reality show.

[Meeker]

Clearly the Yes We Can 2.0 Campaign Effort is making a big difference.

[Meeker]

I'm telling you guys, my trip up there gave Corzine a BIG bump. Just a few more weeks of work by the volunteer leaders with the Yes We Can 2.0 Campaign Effort and this race will be OVER.

[Meeker]

YES WE CAN 2.0! YES WE CAN 2.0! YES WE CAN 2.0!

[Meeker]

How Corzine polls so astronomically well amongst those concerned about jobs and the economy when New Jersey has the worst economy in its region, I'll never know.

It's not rational to blame the governor for the state of the economy in any state, and people concerned about jobs and the economy in N.J. are presumably more in favor of an activist government looking out for the unemployed and hard-up than for tax cuts.

George W. Bush escaped blame for the economy in the 2002 elections, and he was about as responsible for that as Corzine is for N.J.'s economy (which isn't in that bad shape by national standards, anyway.)

If you don't know anything about Corzine, just stay out of it.

I'd love you to tell us how Corzine has destroyed the economy of New Jersey, and how Christie will fix it. But you can't.

I can, but Dem philosophy means you won't listen.

LOL. I'm about 70% sure I'll vote for Daggett at this point. I just see no evidence--at all--that Corzine is responsible for any of the mess the state is in.* You want to pretend you have something other than ideology backing your vote, be my guest. But I challenge that you can't come up with a single shred of evidence that Corzine, personally or through his policies, is responsible for any of the major issues facing New Jersey. Really, one piece of evidence (from a neutral source, not a Christie campaign website or something) shouldn't be hard to find.

*He may not have been very good at dealing with existing problems, I'll grant that. But here I challenge you to come up with a substantive policy difference of Christie's that would deal with the problems. No, his tiny cuts don't count (you could fire every state employee twice and not close the budget deficit), nor does municipal consolidation (which everyone advocates to some degree, Christie and Corzine equally tepidly).

I'm not here to do homework assignments.

Or make coherent arguments apparently.

[Meeker]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey

Look under "Governor" and "Lieutenant Governor".

Am I going insane or does it say "Chris Christie" and "Kim Guadango"?

Hahaha, it totally does.

[Meeker]

Star-Ledger endorses Daggett:

http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2009/10/star-ledger_endorses_independe.html

Do people still read the Star-Ledger?

[Meeker]

Press of Atlantic City:

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[Meeker]

I do have to give the Corzine campaign credit for making Christie's weight a legitimate issue in the campaign and not just something everyone recognizes but doesn't talk about.

I should note my praise is from a purely practical standpoint and has no relation to my moral standards whatsoever.

[Meeker]

8% undecided is a little high for this late in the game.

[Meeker]

NJ.GOV2009.DEM 60.4

Theoretically, Christie should still be favored, but I wouldn't risk any kind of money on it at this point.

yeah, gun to my head I go with Christie

Why?

I think he was referring to electoral prediction, not preferred candidate.

[Meeker]

NJ.GOV2009.DEM 60.4

Theoretically, Christie should still be favored, but I wouldn't risk any kind of money on it at this point.

yeah, gun to my head I go with Christie

Why?

I think he was referring to electoral prediction, not preferred candidate.

Oh, I know that. I was just curious as to why he thinks Christie is still more likely to win.

I'd agree with that. Corzine has only barely lead in a few polls and I think his voters are less likely to show up.

Wildcard in this whole thing (and the most important factor) is still Daggett though.