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How Christie won in N.J.

By Jonathan Tamari

Inquirer Trenton Bureau

In the end, the Shore turned the tide.

Republican Christopher J. Christie racked up gigantic margins in Monmouth and Ocean Counties on his way to victory over Gov. Corzine last night, and kept the race closer than usual in urban Democratic strongholds. The results made Christie the first Republican since 1997 to win a statewide race in New Jersey.

Riding a message of change and lower taxes, Christie won the two Shore counties by nearly 135,000 votes combined, more than accounting for his roughly 100,000-vote margin statewide.

In a race that most insiders said would come down to who could better stir up his supporters, GOP State Chairman Jay Webber said his party had its "best, most sophisticated grassroots campaign" ever.

"This was our year," said Webber, a Republican assemblyman.

He said the GOP made 2.3 million phone calls during the campaign, including 500,000 last weekend.

The effort helped turn independent voters heavily for Christie, a key to any GOP candidate trying to win in a state where registered Democrats far outnumber Republicans.

Even in Gloucester County, where Democrats hold a 2-1 registration advantage over Republicans, Christie won.

Richard Melino, a 60-year-old Republican volunteer from Woodbury, said the Gloucester County team made thousands of calls this week. He said the volunteers provided a personal touch that robo-calls could not.

While most voters in New Jersey told pollsters they were focused on state tax and economic issues, Republicans were already casting the Christie win and a GOP victory in Virginia's governor's race as a sign of their party's resurgence.

President Obama lent his personal prestige to the Corzine campaign, coming to New Jersey three times on the governor's behalf, including two stops last weekend. And Corzine repeatedly tried to tie himself to the president, saying his reelection would help Obama's progress in Washington.

"Chris Christie's victory is a clear sign that Republicans can win in any state next year," said Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association, which backed Christie.

Many of the issues at the center of this race, though - most prominently New Jersey's chronically high property taxes and Corzine's inability to connect with the public - were specific to this state.

Christie had been criticized for providing few specifics about how he would cut income taxes and still balance a dreary state budget. But exit polls showed that his broad message of change after eight years of Democratic governors helped put him over the top.

"Tomorrow, we begin to take back New Jersey," Christie said in his acceptance speech just before 11:30 last night.

Exit polls showed that 38 percent of voters said the top quality they were looking for was the ability to "bring change," said Monmouth University poll director Patrick Murray.

"That's how you get change - by putting in the other party," Murray said while analyzing the race on NJN.

Among independent voters, 58 percent of whom went for Christie, the top issues were corruption and property taxes.

Both played to Christie's strengths and, to some extent, Corzine's weaknesses. Christie had just come off a run as U.S. attorney filled with corruption prosecutions and high-profile news coverage in all corners of the state.

Democrats, meanwhile, were damaged by the sensational corruption and money-laundering arrests last summer that netted 44 politicians and rabbis.

And the governor had failed to deliver on some of his biggest promises on property taxes, settling instead for several incremental measures.

Democrats have traditionally rode huge margins in urban areas to statewide wins. But Corzine failed to score sizable enough wins in the Democratic counties that carried him in 2005. He won Hudson and Essex Counties, for example, but his margins shrunk.

And Bergen County, a bellwether, went for Corzine but barely - despite the governor's running with Loretta Weinberg, a popular senator from the county.

Republicans began the year hopeful, hungry, and focused.

Corzine, already unpopular, faced added trouble as the national recession took a bite out of virtually all incumbents.

He was the only governor seeking reelection this year amid the nation's economic turmoil.

Corzine's campaign fought back with sharp attacks, and he managed to close on Christie. But Corzine did not improve his own standing among voters.

Christie piled on the governor, but slipped in the polls as he refused to deliver a vision of how he would be better, other than to offer bromides about cutting taxes and spending.

In short, the public was ready to turn against Corzine, but there were questions about whether Christie had closed the deal. The results yesterday showed that he had.

Contact staff writer Jonathan Tamari at 609-989-9016 or jtamari@phillynews.com.

Staff writer Rita Giordano contributed to this article.

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Comments

Posted 05:22 AM, 11/04/2009

Barbouze

Obama is a one-term prez, like Jimmy Carter.

Posted 06:41 AM, 11/04/2009

Clark_Kent_SuperHero

Christie needs to get a Ronald Regan Republican brain trust going. He seems like a big dope.

Posted 06:50 AM, 11/04/2009

yweston

Christie will be a one term Republican because nothing is going to change. Voters hated Corzine they weren't crazy about Christie. Exit polls said voters were against Corzine, not Pres. Obama. Deeds in Va. was a lackluster candidate. Hoffman lost in NY-23 that was the real race. With all that "star power" and forcing the moderate out of the race. First Dem to win in that District in over 100 years. Republicans have a real problem on their hands.

Posted 07:23 AM, 11/04/2009

LeavingPhilly

Change I can believe in! Obama's "teachable moment" is coming November 2, 2010

Posted 07:37 AM, 11/04/2009

Fritz and Alice

This win sends a strong message to all politicians. Americans want politicians to fix the economy and do everything they can to stop the soaring deficits. That is a train wreck just around the corner. I'd vote for Mr. Ed, if I knew he wasn't going to take my money and pass it out to all his friends and not try to think up ways that he can make more deep pocket corporations and unions beholden to him.

Posted 07:41 AM, 11/04/2009

Tucci

I agree that Christie is just another North Jersey RINO. What he has now, however, is the opportunity to utterly repudiate the "go along to get along" stupidity of the state's dead-from-the-neck-up Republican Party. With a hostile Democrat-controlled legislature, he's not going to get anything out of those bloodsucking parasites anyway, so why pretend "bipartisan" niceness? Go on the attack from the moment of inauguration, unleash the prosecutors, put up public analysis of the state's bloated budget, and communicate directly with the legislators' constituents. "This is what Assemblyman Thieving Bastich is doing to YOU. Git 'im!" No need for pretenses. Just give the Democrat Party nothing but napalm from day one, and let's have some fun.

Posted 07:41 AM, 11/04/2009

Tucci

Posted 07:41 AM, 11/04/2009

Tucci

Posted 07:41 AM, 11/04/2009

Tucci

Posted 07:57 AM, 11/04/2009

B-Rooster

yweston, are you dilusional? Republicans win both governers races, and the only democrat win is over an independent in Blue NY, and the Republicans are in trouble? This kind of arrogance is why Obama and teams popularity is falling fast, not to mention his lack of accomplishing anything at all since being in office (although he did manage to take over most of the banking and auto industry...)

Posted 08:07 AM, 11/04/2009

tr88

Tamari wrote this with tears in his eyes. How anyone could find anything he writes about NJ politics as credible is beyond me.

Posted 08:14 AM, 11/04/2009

dyl422003

Here we go again. Last time we had a Republican in office she lowered sales tax while raising property taxes and stealing from the state workers pensions. The number one reason why property taxes are so high in the first place. I wonder who Christie will steal from and what tax he will levy to cover the rebates he promised.

Posted 08:24 AM, 11/04/2009

Teddy22

Let's not make a molehill into a mountain B-Rooster with the tacky spin. Corzine's problems started before many people even knew who Obama was, and this was Corzine's troubles: very high NJ taxes, corruption throughout NJ, and the 8-yr. results of a crashed economy - led by the Republican Party. State Democrats in both Gov races are worried only about the economy - that was the dominate issue. Republican Hoffman lost in NY District 23 which was the real election to watch. The political situation in this country is about repairing a national economy that has been devastated: it's not about Obama, who remains very popular in both NJ and VA. Let's get that very CLEAR. People want jobs, and want the economy to recover after eight terrible years of Bush/Cheney, whose bloody neo-con cowboy legacy continues and will continue next year, and into the next decade until progressives can fix the mess they left behind.

Posted 08:36 AM, 11/04/2009

Joseph Meloni

I'm surprised that The Inquirer reported Christie's win on yhe front page. It doesn't support their political agenda. Of course this was a referendom on Corzine and to a lesser extent Obama, but ot is more of a vote against the excesses of the current Congress. We can't trist either party.

Posted 08:51 AM, 11/04/2009

Carl07

Let's see, for the past two months on my way to work I had to drive by a billboard with Obama's image prominently displayed in front and with Corzine's smaller image behind Obama with the caption "Keep It Going" yet Democrats are now trying to say that this isn't about Obama at all, that is just Republican spin. Come on, that billboard shows that the D's were trying to make it about Obama also. Corzine lost because he is another "Do as I say, not as I do" (seatbelts???) nanny state Democrat who thinks he can better judge what is best for people than people can themselves.