Quinnipiac: Lautenberg 37%; Republican 30%

[Brittain33]

And yes, it should be no surprise that New Jersey is the way it is given the way it votes.  New Jerseyans hate Corzine and what he wants to do, but they'd still rather have him over a Republican.  It's part of the reason why New Jersey is in such terrible shape politically.

I know it's frustrating when the party in power is behaving arrogantly/corruptly and voters won't even give your party a chance, but New Jersey became solidly Democratic on a state level relatively recently. Democrats only took complete control of state government in 2003. Republicans had total control of the legislature from 1991 to 2001 and a governor for most of that time, which is both a big reason New Jersey is "the way it is" and also why people still feel they gave Republicans a chance and were disappointed by what they got.

There will be a Republican comeback when Bush is no longer polluting the brand for you guys and the Democrats have one scandal too many. However, no one should expect the Republicans won't repeat the same mistakes they made in the 90s and the Democrats are making now, and the state will end up deeper in debt, more heavily developed, and ever less pleasant to live in no matter who is governing.

[Brittain33]

I don't care so much about a Republican comeback in New Jersey so much as I care about a "good government" comeback.  New Jersey hasn't seen it in quite some time, largely because the people have gotten into the business of reflexively voting against it.

Who are the "good government" candidate who have been the victim of reflexive voting?

Whoever isn't in office in NJ, is in favor of good government. Once they get in, they all forget, Republican or Democratic. You may as well vote based on other issues.

[Brittain33]

It's hard to tell you what candidates represent "good government," but I can sure as hell rifle off a list of a "bad government" candidates.

Yup, they're the people in the leadership or at the heads of the committees from either party, and they are enabled by no matter who gets voted in to support them.

This is why Ellen Karcher's political career was a tragedy. She ran against a bad government guy and won. But she couldn't get good government policies passed. Now if the Republicans take the Senate, there are going to be senators in the pockets of developers and others who will line their pockets with the power given them by rookies in marginal districts while the state debt soars. It happened in the 90s.

[Brittain33]

This is why Ellen Karcher's political career was a tragedy. She ran against a bad government guy and won. But she couldn't get good government policies passed.

And because she was in a solid Republican district.

I think her failure to get the Democratic leadership to support her initiatives is a bigger tragedy than her losing the seat. The latter, eh, once it was clear she was going to be a voice ignored by the other senators, who cares.