Everyone But Corzine
A superior court judge ruled that the Codey administration's plans to "plug a gap in the state's budget" by selling bonds was unconstitutional. This comes as a suprise to some who witnessed Governor McGreevey tend to the budget deficit with a similar plan last year.
The ruling is not only a fiscal setback for the Codey administration, but will have political consequences for Democrats in Trenton as well. Although many saw the acting-governor's bond initiative as a standard method of deficit alleviation, the illegality of the plan demonstrates the administration's reluctance to cut spending.
In light of accusations of homeland pork being allocated along party lines, the ruling party in New Jersey will have to work hard to saving face.
However, despite all of the negative publicity, the governor's race between Jon Corzine and Doug Forrester seems to be virtually detached from state politics. Corzine continues to hold a substantial lead, according to Hedgehog Report, which has him winning in the polls over Forrester by ten points, down from twelve in mid-July.
Could it be that voters, despite Enlighten NJ's fervent campaign to prove Corzine's sliminess, do not associate the U.S Senator with Trenton politics? A pretty union girlfriend isn't doing it for the Republican campaign. What will?
posted by Jack @ 12:06 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
What the republicans need are creative new ideas about taxes and education.
Could it be that the people of New Jersey are not familiar, at this point in the race, with Corzine's new spending plans for New Jersey and his failure to take a no-new-taxes pledge? One more question – have you noticed the propensity of Democrats to use the “it’s just about sex” defense as a “get out of jail free" card?
Forrester is running a lousy campaign. There's enough bad news out there now that a Republican campaign with (a) a good delivery system (mostly a good blog and a good network of blogs) and (b) smart communications strategies (knowing how to identify and deliver a strong message), SHOULD have shredded Corzine by now. He hasn't done so, and since I don't think he knows why he's not getting any traction, he's not likely to.
Considering how much negative news there is out there, there is a sliver of hope that Corzine could lose DESPITE the incompetence of his opponent's campaign. That almost never happens, but if it did happen, it would be because of the blogs and because of the media. The media has been unexpectedly aggressive in fisking Corzine, and more to the point, in fisking Corzine's Dem Party affiliations (Norcross, Menendez, etc.). This is manna from heaven for the Republicans, but equally important is the fact that blogs have run with these stories with no direct encouragement or guidance from Forrester's people.
I advanced a theory re the emerging relationships between blogs and newspapers in this post. This election is another chance to test the theory.
I think some of you bloggers are out of touch with what resonates with the voters. Blogs are powerful, but probably not powerful enough to destroy the Democratic candidate for governor.
Although blogs are more influential in New Jersey, the wealthiest state in the union, than West Virginia, the poorest state, many people choose to avoid blogs because they lack credibility.
I admit, I myself did not favor blogs until I started one myself.
Jack, Forrester probably feels the same way. Watch what happens to your blog's traffic stats as the election draws closer (and ask over at more established NJ blogs such as DynamoBuzz or Enlighten or Bad Hair). Then revisit your statement.
Look, from my un-enlightened perspective in Iowa, Corzine clearly seems like the better candidate than Forrester, who can't seem to go a couple of days without some kind of bad incident, especially last week. There are a lot of bad and slimy folks in Jersey, I'm sure, but Corzine isn't one of them. Forrester sure seems like he might be.
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