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."
 

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