It's a history-making Election Day!

Or is it?

With all 120 seats up for vote in the Legislature, Gov. Christie has been saying that Republicans are going to make history today. But Republicans, as we reported last week, say "making history" might just mean breaking even and not losing any seats. Only one governor (McGreevey) in the last half-century has picked up seats in the first legislative election of his/her first term. The implication is that if the Republicans pick up zero, one or two seats in the Democratic-controlled body, that reflects pretty positively on the gov.

Now, the Democrats are reaching into the annals of New Jersey political history themselves. They say that Christie is remarkably ineffective as a leader of his party in getting Republican legislative candidates elected. A memo circulating among Democrats today reads thus:

With his 2009 election, Christie became the Republican Governor with the most ineffective coattails in the past hundred years and the most ineffective among all Governors since 1940. With only 41.7% of legislative seats won by Republican candidates in 2009, it became the lowest percentage of Republican legislators in a year in which a fellow Republican won the gubernatorial election. Among all Governors, Christie had the most ineffective coattail effect since Democrat Charles Edison's election in 1940 when 30% of legislators elected were fellow Democrats.

Of course, Christie would blame the way districts are carved out in New Jersey for giving Democrats an unfair advantage today, making it nearly impossible for Republicans to make inroads.

And in the end, how much does any of this really matter? Christie has shown a remarkable ability to carve off Democrats to support his proposals while keeping Republican legislators in complete lock-step. One political observer, Bergen Record columnist Charles Stile, says having Democrats running the legislature is exactly how he wants it.

With that bit of history and dose of cynicism, happy voting!