Opinion of the 1981 New Jersey governor election (Florio vs. Kean)

[Suburbia]

One of the most controversial elections in American history.

An open seat, incumbent Gov. Brendan Byrne was term-limited, and longtime New Jersey Rep. James Florio won the Democratic nomination, his counterpart Tom Kean Sr. won the '81 GOP nomination.

A bitter election based on race and voter caging.

Democrats in this state have stepped up their charges that the Republican Party intimidated minority voters in last Tuesday's gubernatorial election, the results of which were so close that the winner still is not certain.

Neither Republican Thomas H. Kean nor Democrat James J. Florio has hinted that there was any fraud, but Florio--who trails Kean by 1,947 votes--maintains that intimidation kept some minority voters away from the polls.

Republicans contend they used legitimate means to combat a tradition of urban vote fraud in the state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_New_Jersey_gubernatorial_election

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/11/08/democrats-accuse-gop-of-intimidating-minorities-in-nj-voting/9cfb873d-7c3e-44ea-beb9-4c9b5d9ab5a1/

Kean 49.46% (Republican)
Florio 49.38% (Democratic)

[Sumner 1868]

An election in New Jersey is always HE until proven otherwise. Sounds like this was certainly no exception.

That said, I do like the map it produced. Very populist of Florio to carry Gloucester and Salem while doing poor in the suburbs.