Republican Gov.-elect Chris Christie spent the second day after his election much like the first: with a Democratic leader in a Democratic town talking about bipartisanship.

Christie went to Woodbridge Thursday, a blue collar Middlesex County town, one of the biggest municipalities in the state, that typically votes Democratic but backed the Republican Tuesday. Christie greeted residents on Main Street alongside Democratic Mayor John McCormac, a former state Treasurer. The previous day Christie was greeted at a Newark charter school along with Democratic power broker Steve Adubato, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo.

The message today was just like Wednesday's: Christie said he would work with anyone who is effective, Democrat or Republican. "New Jersey's problems are too big for the petty kind of politics of the past," he said. It's a practical message -- Christie will still have to work with a Legislature controlled by Democrats.

Christie has always been a forceful presence, and it appears that that will continue, including in his dealings with the press. While reporters normally shout over one another to get their questions in, the former prosecutor was in control of his press availability, calling out reporters by name to take their questions and imposing some order on the normally chaotic scrum.

Christie said he had spoken with President Obama, who campaigned for Gov. Corzine, and that there are no hard feelings between himself and the president. He said he also spoke with Corzine and expected the transition to go smoothly.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

In a story in today's New York Times, Gov. Corzine appeared to want to bring back some form of his wildly unpopular "asset monetization" plan, which involved raising tolls by 800 percent over 14 years to raise money for transportation projects, state debt reduction and open space preservation. The plan was so poorly received by both lawmakers and the public that Corzine cut short a planned 21-county road show to pitch the proposal directly to the public.

"This idea worked," Corzine was quoted by the newspaper as saying. "So maybe we just need to scale it back."

At a press conference this morning, after what seemed like every Republican official in the state had sent out a press release condemning the possibility of a new toll hike plan, Corzine said the newspaper's characterization was inaccurate. Asked if he believed the toll plan should be brought back, Corzine said, according to a transcript provided by the administration, "No! No toll increases, no leasing. Off the table. Not gonna happen. Period!”

Asked if the Grey Lady got it wrong, Corzine said, "They got it wrong because they focused on the fact that we may raise money out of our rest stops on properties that surround the turnpike. No toll increases...no leasing of the turnpike. Off the table, not happening, period! And you know I think if you read that article you will also see that Mr. Christie has backed away from every single promise that he talked about during the campaign, particularly during the primary, about how he was gonna roll back the sales tax, how we was gonna increase rebates, how he was gonna put more money into school funding. All of those things are out the window."

That doesn't mean tolls won't increase in New Jersey, though. Last year, Corzine approved toll hikes of about 50 percent for both the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway, which will take effect in 2012.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

I'll be on talking about the governor's race along with the Star-Ledger's Tom Moran Friday morning at 10 a.m. on Radio Times, on WHYY.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

He has been creeping closer and closer for months. Now, Gov. Corzine has a 5 point lead in his re-election bid, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll out this morning.

Corzine is up 43 to 38 over Republican Chris Christie, with Independent Chris Daggett getting 13 percent of the vote.  

The survey of 1,267 likely New Jersey voters has a 2.8 percent margin of error.

Two weeks ago Quinnipiac had Christie up by one. He had been leading by 10 points on Sept. 1 and even more over the summer.

But poll director Maurice Carroll said the election isn't over, because 38 percent of Daggett's voters say they may change their minds - and 43 percent of his backers listed Christie as their second choice, giving the Republican a potential path to victory, if he can sway the Independent's supporters to his column.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

With just one week to go until Election Day, we may have the first instance of total agreement from the top three candidates for governor in New Jersey: Let's Go Yankees.

While New Jersey sports fandom is typically split between loyalties to Philadelphia (in the South) and New York (in the North), all three gubernatorial candidates are pulling for the Yankees over the Phillies in the World Series.

Only Independent Chris Daggett is a Yankees fan at his core, but both Democratic Gov. Corzine and Republican Chris Christie have more personal ties to North Jersey than South.

Corzine, who grew up in Illinois as a White Sox fan, has lived in the northern part of the state since moving to Jersey and spent much of his professional career working in Manhattan. His spokesman Sean Darcy wrote in an e-mail that Corzine is rooting for the Yankees.

Christie, born and raised in North Jersey, is an avowed Mets fan -- surely making the Phillies-Yanks World Series sting more than a little. In this radio interview on WCBS 880, the Yankees' radio carrier, he said, "I'm a North Jersey guy so I'll be pulling for the Yankees."

Daggett's policy director Mark Magyar said the Independent who played short stop in Little League at the Shore grew up as a Yankees fan.

"Unlike some candidates for office who tailor their positions, Chris Daggett is a Yankee fan," Magyar said, but added, "I can say if this was the Phillies-Red Sox, I know where he would be." 

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

After President Obama campaigned there Wednesday to boost Gov. Corzine, Bergen County -- the most populous county in the state -- is back in the news, this time with a piece of good news for Republican Chris Christie.

The Thursday corruption conviction of one time power broker Joseph Ferriero, who ruled Democratic politics in the county, was both a feather in the cap for Christie, who brought the indictment when he was U.S. Attorney, and a weight on Corzine, who, according to Republicans, gave more than $440,000 in political donations to Ferriero and former state Sen. Joseph Coniglio, another convicted member of the county's Democratic machine.

Christie, in a hastily arranged conference call Thursday afternoon, said Corzine, who once decried "the toxic mix" of money and politics, was one of the system's "leading chemists."

"I'm not saying the governor knew he was a crook, what I'm saying is the governor enabled somebody who was a dictator up in Bergen County," Christie said on the call.

The issue came up at a gubernatorial debate Thursday night. Corzine said the money he gave to the county organization Ferriero controlled was part of his support for national Democrats. He also noted that he backed his lieutenant governor candidate, Loretta Weinberg, when she battled Ferriero over the state Senate seat she now holds.

"The idea that I have somehow enabled Joe Ferriero, when I stood up to him first along with Loretta Weinberg when he tried to run her out of the party, is just a joke," Corzine said in the debate.

Republicans continued pressing the issue today. Christie's running mate, Kim Guadagno, said "For Jon Corzine to imply that his considerable and consistent contributions to Ferriero's political operation were simply to elect federal candidates is laughable and isn't fooling anyone."

For at least two days it brought back ethics as an issue, which we all thought would be a key to the race after 44 people were arrested on stunning corruption and bribery charges this summer, but which faded after the Corzine camp raised questions about Christie's ethics.

What impact could it have now? The guru of Bergen politics, Charlie Stile, says not much: "Most polls show property taxes as the top concern in this election — corruption and ethics reform barely register," he wrote.

Meanwhile, his Record colleague Alfred Doblin penned a song for the situation. If you like Jersey politics, or Frank Sinatra, click the link.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

Voters here don't particularly like Jon Corzine or Chris Christie. So each candidate has tried to tie themselves, to different degrees, to a politician that the New Jersey public does like, President Obama.

For Corzine, a fellow Democrat, the link is easier. Obama himself made the case for re-electing Corzine Wednesday night in Hackensack. The message: the "change" that Obama promised in Washington will do better with a Democrat in the Statehouse in Trenton.

But Christie has also seized on Obama's "change" message, casting himself as the outsider who would uproot business as usual in Trenton, notably by lowering taxes.

But Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray says today that Christie's message is missing a key piece of the Obama theme. It wasn't just change, Murray writes on In The Lobby and his own blog, it was "change and hope."

The change message is easy enough: Corzine, whether for his policies or just because he happens to be in office during a national recession, is not popular. But, Murray writes that Christie has not provided hope for better days ahead:

"A common refrain from Chris Christie is that New Jersey is broken.

And therein lies the problem. Attacking the incumbent is one thing, especially if done well (which it hasn’t been in this case). But who wants to vote for a guy whose underlying campaign theme is that we are all headed down the toilet? Maybe his delivery is just a byproduct of the prosecutorial personality. But it doesn’t resonate with independent voters who need a positive reason to go out and vote."
 

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

Today's Inquirer features a profile of Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher J. Christie, to be followed by Gov. Corzine Thursday and independent Chris Daggett on Friday. Also, for some of the Inquirer's previous coverage of the race, go to www.philly.com/philly/hot_topics/64403467.html

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

In today’s Inquirer, Jon Tamari looks at the brewing battle for the Senate presidency, with State Sen. Stephen M. Sweeney (D-Gloucester) proclaiming himself the winner yesterday.
 

Does it strike anyone else as odd that with Gov. Corzine still behind in the polls and less than five weeks left until Election Day, the Senate Democrats are squabbling over power instead of concentrating on getting their candidate re-elected?
 

Codey claims that’s exactly what he’s doing. “My focus and energies are on reelecting Jon Corzine as governor and helping Assembly candidates throughout the state," he said in a press release yesterday.
 

If that’s true, he may be the only one, which raises some interesting questions, namely: Isn’t there plenty of time after Nov. 3 to worry about who will be the next Senate president? If Corzine isn't re-elected, aren't all the Democratic lawmakers going to have a lot bigger headaches to worry about?
 

So what does this all too public battle tell us about the Senate Democrats? Does it show a lack of discipline in the party? Why do the senators appear less interested in re-electing the governor than in preserving their own political futures?

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.