Web Search powered by YAHOO! SEARCH

options

TOM GRALISH / Staff photographer

Illustrating the near 50-50 split of voters in New Jersey, these signs for the major-party gubernatorial candidates along Route 130 in Pennsauken are about as close as the polls are.

READER FEEDBACK

In N.J., voters up in air over 'campaign about nothing'

By JASON NARK & DAVE DAVIES
Philadelphia Daily News

narkj@phillynews.com 856-779-3231

THE ONLY guarantee in today's gubernatorial election in New Jersey is that there won't be any guarantees until well after the polls close at 8 p.m.

Heading into Election Day, incumbent Jon S. Corzine held narrow leads over Republican challenger Christopher J. Christie in several polls, but those margins aren't enough to call any candidate a favorite.

Corzine's slim and recent leads in the Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey and the Farleigh Dickinson PublicMind polls, and Christie's 2-point lead in yesterday's Quinnipiac University poll show only one thing, analysts say: confused voters.

"This has been one of the most volatile electorates I've ever seen," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. "People are so up in the air."

The reason for the confusion, Murray said, is that neither Corzine nor Christie has touched on the topic that pains New Jerseyans the most: property taxes.

"This has been a campaign about nothing," Murray said.

Monmouth University's final poll, released yesterday morning, shows Corzine getting 43 percent of the vote to Christie's 41. Independent candidate Chris Daggett held 8 percent of the vote.

"Jon Corzine just hasn't sealed the deal, and Chris Christie people are still up in the air," Murray said.

During his campaign, Christie, 47, vowed to cut state spending, decrease taxes and revitalize the state's industry and inner cities.

Corzine, 62, who has not ruled out tax increases, has campaigned on expanding health coverage, creating jobs and painting himself as the only one capable of righting New Jersey's economic woes.

Daggett, 59, offered a plan to cut property taxes by raising sales taxes, a proposal attacked as a tax break mostly benefitting the rich.

Corzine also has been linking himself to President Obama as much as possible, as have Democrats across the state.

Murray said that Obama's visits to cities like Camden and Newark could play a big part in getting disgruntled Democrats to vote.

"It's an effective message for Dems who plan to sit this one out," he said. "If Jon Corzine pulls this one off [today], he will have a big debt to President Obama."

Philadelphia

Voters in Philadelphia will be electing a district attorney and a city controller, and casting ballots in seven statewide and 11 local judicial races.

The city will get a new district attorney for the first time in 18 years, because incumbent Lynne Abraham decided not to run again.

Democrat Seth Williams, 42, spent 10 years as a prosecutor and supervisor under Abraham. He beat four rivals in a hotly contested Democrat primary in May.

Republican D.A. candidate Michael Untermeyer, 58, worked four years in the D.A.'s office and 11 years as an investigator in the state Attorney General's Office. He ran for sheriff as a Democrat in 2007, and has put $200,000 of his own money into his campaign.

The race for city controller pits incumbent Democrat Alan Butkovitz, 57, against Republican Al Schmidt, 38, a former federal auditor who was also executive director of the Philadelphia Republican City Committee.

Butkovitz is a lawyer and former state legislator who won the office four years ago. He says he has made the office focus more on performance reviews of critical city services than routine financial reports.

Schmidt, who has publicly criticized leaders of his own party, argues that he has the independence to be an effective fiscal watchdog.

The marquee judicial race in Pennsylvania is the hard-fought contest for state Supreme Court between Easton Democrat Jack Panella and Pittsburgh Republican Joan Orie Melvin.

Both are state Superior Court judges who've waged hard-hitting campaigns. The Supreme Court has three Democrats and three Republicans, so the election will decide the political balance of the court.

Pennsylvania voters are also electing four Superior Court judges and two Commonwealth Court judges.

In Philadelphia, four seats on Municipal Court and seven on the Common Pleas bench are on the ballot, but none is contested.

Judicial candidates in Pennsylvania are allowed to run in both Republican and Democratic primaries. In Philadelphia, Republican candidates who didn't win the Democratic primaries withdrew and were replaced on the Republican slate by winners in the Democratic primaries, eliminating all competition.

CURRENTLY SHOWING ON PHILLY.COM

A Philly girl's love for Michael Vick

Philly Uncorked: Cooking and wine

Mob Scene: Bad Cop

SnapGlow.TV: Frame your face

The Gossip with Marnie Hall: El Cafeito

Comments

Posted 07:08 AM, 11/03/2009

tr88

wont your editors allow you to mention any polls that have Christie leding? RCP Average 10/27 - 11/1 -- 42.6 41.6 10.4 Christie +1.0 Monmouth/Gannett 10/31 - 11/1 722 LV 41 43 8 Corzine +2 SurveyUSA 10/30 - 11/1 582 LV 45 42 10 Christie +3 Quinnipiac 10/27 - 11/1 1533 LV 42 40 12 Christie +2 Rasmussen Reports 10/29 - 10/29 1000 LV 46 43 8 Christie +3 Stockton/Zogby 10/27 - 10/29 1093 LV 39 40 14 Corzine +1)

Posted 07:23 AM, 11/03/2009

drhoagie

Nothing? Years of corruption, budget shortfalls, reckless deficits, higher taxes, a mass exodus of NJ residents and chumming with a wildly unpopular Marxist president? Nothing? No mention of all the polls that have Chris Christie leading?

Posted 07:47 AM, 11/03/2009

db1217

NJ, it's time to get rid of the corrupt, fiscally irresponsible, tax hungry Corzine administration. Vote Christie and send a message to Washington that reckless spending won't be tolerated!

Posted 08:26 AM, 11/03/2009

Vanzant

We need to stop the Insanity, I pay 1000.00 per month for taxs and dont even have Trash Pick-up... GO Christie!

Posted 09:30 AM, 11/03/2009

Rod72

Too bad the republican's didn't have the guts to put a moderate up for office instead of the typical pandering to the fascist concervative right. This election truly is about nothing. You have the choice of a terrible incumbent and a terrible challenger, excitement. NJ is suffering from decades of mismanagement by both parties, you would think that a decent leader would appear at least once.

Posted 09:30 AM, 11/03/2009

Rod72

Posted 09:44 AM, 11/03/2009

chrissmith

This article is ridiculous. Chris Christie has talked about property taxes over and over and over. His commercials mention is constantly. What are you guys talking about??

Posted 12:14 PM, 11/03/2009

Rod72

Tucci, you are a very sick individual.

Posted 12:41 PM, 11/03/2009

LSX427

Does it really matter who wins. They all say they'll fix things but in reality they won't and we'll continue with high taxes and people will continue to leave the state. NJ is a joke why do we need high property taxes to pay large school salaries of $100,000 plus for to many school superintendents and other high salary positions for small towns. Only one person does that job for the entire city of Phila. How do things like this happen? Get rid of high taxes by giving less for high salaries that are not needed.

Posted 12:53 PM, 11/03/2009

Deepwater

If the Republicans lose this election, they have no one to blame but themselves. The only reason the race is this close is because Christie is a social conservative. A social moderate Republican would win in a landslide. Northeast Republicans must take note of this.

Posted 01:05 PM, 11/03/2009

BFlint

For those not paying attention this election is about: 1. Lowering the tax burden on home owners; 2. Reducing programs and eliminating increased spending statewide; 3. Stopping Corruption in Trenton that has spread under Corzine as many of his Democrat friends are now being convicted. VOTE NO on Question 1 and vote for Chris Christie as he is the best choice we have.