Monday, November 07, 2005

What? There’s an election tomorrow?

I’ve been half-paying attention to the New Jersey governor’s race, if only because the Garden State is where I grew up. I knew Republican candidate Doug Forrester was doomed when he couldn’t beat crinkly old Frank Lautenberg, who stepped in to replace the thoroughly corrupt Robert Torricelli in the 2002 Senate race. George Will heaps scorn on Democrat Jon Corzine in today’s WashPost:

Sen. Jon Corzine, the New Jersey Democrat, brings his characteristic grandiosity even to his buyer's remorse. In 2000 the former chairman of Goldman Sachs pulled $60.2 million from his wallet to buy a U.S. Senate seat. But just four years after the most expensive Senate campaign in American history, he decided to escape from that seat -- for which he paid $27,489.03 a day, prorated over six years -- and try to become governor.
I don’t know what happened to New Jersey since I left for Massachusetts. When I was in high school, our beloved governor was Republican Tom Kean, who later was tapped to head the 9/11 Commission. Since then, there’s been a string of awful Democratic governors (Jim Florio, James McGreevey) yet New Jersey has turned deep blue, with a property tax rate (highest in the nation) to match.

It’s possible that any Republican candidate would have been rolled by Corzine’s massive war chest, but the NJGOP should have found somebody better than Forrester, that’s all.

Update – The Hedgehog Report has all the latest NJ polls showing Corzine with a small but solid lead.

2 comments:

enobarbus said...

I believe Bret Schundler was available. The guy's record speaks for itself, but the blueness of NJ now seems to require even Republicans to be pro-choice. Thus, Forrester squeaked out Schundler in the primary.

Anonymous said...

Corzine by 10%. The Hedgehog gets another 4 years of winter.

When you get a chance, pull out all those old George Will columns where he equally excoriates Bush and Bloomberg for their massive war chests. Can't wait to read them.