2009 New Jersey Governor's Race

[CARLHAYDEN]

While the next Governor of New Jersey will be a corrupt practitioner of big centralized government, whether he has a (D) or (R) behind his name, it will be interesting to see how many voters in New Jersey will reject the sleeze of the major party nominees and vote for the Libertarian candidate.

Here's a profile from New Jersey Jewish News:

by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer

May 21, 2009

Ask Kenneth Kaplan why he is the Libertarian Party’s candidate for governor of New Jersey and he’ll tell you he’s a “child of the ’60s” who “believes in individual liberties.”

In the category-defying case of the Libertarian Party, those range from doing away with most taxes and opposing gun control to approving same-sex marriage and legalizing the medical use of marijuana.

“Most Republicans and Democrats would say they believe in individual liberties, too, but they really don’t,” Kaplan said as he sat in his real estate office in Parsippany.

“They believe in bigger government that controls more and more of what we do, and I don’t believe in that. I believe in voluntary relationships between individuals rather than relationships imposed by the government.”

The Libertarian Party’s State Committee unanimously selected Kaplan, president of KenKap Realty Corp., as their candidate last month. It’s an admittedly uphill climb: In the 2005 gubernatorial race, eight third-party candidates combined to claim just 3.5 percent of the votes cast.

Kaplan is realistic about his chances. Talking about his youth in West Orange, where he attended the Jewish Center of West Orange (now B’nai Shalom), he mentioned that he was president of United Synagogue Youth.

“It was one of the few elections I won,” he joked.

But Kaplan is serious about the positions his party represents, many of which, he said, are derived from his own Jewish and political roots.

Kaplan, 61, was born at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. His grandfather had emigrated from Romania, rented a pushcart, and eventually owned a store. It evolved into a family business, Milt Kaplan’s Men’s Wear in Orange, which Kaplan ran after his father’s death.

“My parents lived through the Great Depression. That shaped them and that shaped me. I am careful with a dollar,” the candidate said.

As he grew up in a family of New Deal Democrats, Kaplan said, he perceived Republicans “as a country club party that was not for Jews. I admired John Kennedy. I wanted to be elected president, and I thought it was important that a Catholic be elected if a Jew had any chance in the future.

“Then I admired Barry Goldwater, the ‘conscience of a conservative.’”

In his first year of college at Franklin and Marshall in Pennsylvania, Kaplan helped organize a chapter of Hillel and was active in the movement to support Soviet Jewry.

Currently he is a member of Temple Beth Shalom in Livingston and a board member of its men’s club.

“I have a long history of support of Jewish causes,” he said.

After Kaplan transferred to Brandeis University in Massachusetts, he became an opponent of the war in Vietnam. He campaigned for Eugene McCarthy, the Minnesota senator who ran in the 1968 Democratic primaries against President Lyndon Johnson.

But Kaplan said he became “very disillusioned” when the Democrats “abandoned the antiwar movement” that year.

‘The right thing to do’

Then, in 1973, he saw a Libertarian Party ad on television. It was for candidate Fran Youngstein, who was running for mayor of New York. “It was the fusion of everything I had ever believed in — the capitalism I got from Goldwater and the lifestyle liberalism I got from the Democratic Party,” Kaplan recalled. “I said, ‘Wow! That’s it!’ and I’ve been a Libertarian ever since.”

Among the “key issues” on his platform is a proposal to abolish local restrictions preventing single-family homeowners from dividing up their properties into two- and three-family units.

He would allow marijuana to be legally prescribed by a doctor for people with “cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, and other ailments. It is a humanitarian issue. I want the sick people who need it to get it.”

He said he believes abortion “is a woman’s decision between her and her doctor. However, it comes down to people’s own views as to where and when life begins. I think reasonable people can disagree on that, but I don’t think the state should be involved.

“But because some people do hold such strong views against it,” Kaplan said, “I would not use tax dollars to pay for abortions.”

And a strict believer in the Bill of Rights, Kaplan opposes gun control. “Religious freedom and freedom of speech and freedom of the press are all in danger if you start saying the Second Amendment is not an absolute. Then you can say, ‘The First Amendment only applies to Christianity, not to Judaism or Islam.’”

Kaplan, a divorced father of two, is strongly in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. He said he has “both an ideological and a personal interest in its passage. I think it is the right thing to do as a civil rights issue, and I have a son who is gay. Every Jewish parent can relate to the idea of wanting equality for their children, and I want equality for my son.”

His son, David, is an engineer in Baltimore. His daughter, Kimberly, lives in New York, where she is a staff member of ABC News’ Nightline.

When the subject turns to Jewish causes, Kaplan again demonstrated a Libertarian’s independent streak.

He suggested that the New Jersey-Israel Commission, which fosters trade and cultural relationships between the state and the nation, “isn’t necessary.”

“Commercial interests need to represent themselves,” he said.

[Rowan]

“Corzine, who has the New Jersey Business and Industry Association’s leaders’ endorsement for this year’s budget, got polite applause from the audience. But the reception for Christie was noticeably more enthusiastic. He got a more enthusiastic standing ovation before starting his speech and more applause and laughter in the middle of it.

Corzine was not there to hear Christie’s remarks, however. He left for an organized labor event in Atlantic City shortly after speaking.”

http://www.politickernj.com/matt-friedman/30647/christie-and-corzine-give-dueling-speeches

[DownWithTheLeft]

Does anyone know where I can get the video from NJN of Christie's visit to Rutherford last week?  Apparently (although I missed it myself) I was on there

[Rowan]

AFL-CIO endorses Corzine.

http://www.politickernj.com/matt-friedman/30671/afl-cio-endorses-corzine

I AM SHOCKED!!!

[Keystone Phil]

I'm loving these ads against Corzine. I saw two tonight and remember one of them starting off calling him "Wall Street Businessman Jon Corzine." Hilarious. Not sure if Christie's campaign put them out or if they're a product of some other group.

[Rowan]

I'm loving these ads against Corzine. I saw two tonight and remember one of them starting off calling him "Wall Street Businessman Jon Corzine." Hilarious. Not sure if Christie's campaign put them out or if they're a product of some other group.

It's the RGA.

[Tender Branson]

Strategic Vision:

Christie: 51%
Corzine: 39%

Do you approve or disapprove of Governor Jon Corzine's overall job performance?

Approve 34%
Disapprove 54%

The results of a three-day poll in the state of New Jersey. Results are based on telephone interviews with 800 likely voters in New Jersey, aged 18+, and conducted June 19-21, 2009 by telephone. The margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.

http://www.strategicvision.biz/political/newjersey_poll_062409.htm

[East Coast Republican]

56% approval for the President seems about 8-10% too low.  Where are the internals of this poll?

[Zarn]

56% approval for the President seems about 8-10% too low.  Where are the internals of this poll?

Maybe it's 4 or 5% too low... but not 8-10%.

That said, the Christie-Corzine numbers seem about right.

[East Coast Republican]

When is there going to be another NJ poll?

The whole Gubernatorial section of the forum is falling off a cliff.  Come on I need another NJ Poll! 

I pray to the Polling gods to bring another poll on thy blessed Earth.  May we reap the benefits of discussion and analysis of these polls from the honorable polling firms such as Rasmussen Reports and Quinnipiac-noble soothsayers of the divine fortunes of Governor Corzine and his noble yet loyal opponent Christie.

[Rowan]

PPP is releasing one tomorrow.

[Tender Branson]

Public Policy Polling:

Christie (R): 51%
Corzine (D): 41%

Christie: 43% favorable, 33% unfavorable
Corzine: 36% favorable, 56% unfavorable

Christie has an unusually lopsided 60-26 lead with independent voters. He’s also benefiting from a remarkable level of party unity- he has a 93-3 advantage with Republicans while Corzine is up only 75-16 among Democrats.

Corzine has solid leads with minority groups in the state, but is hampered by a staggering 60-33 disadvantage among white voters. He actually has a narrow advantage among female voters but trails by 28 with men.

PPP surveyed 1,094 New Jersey voters from June 27th to 29th. The survey’s margin of error is +/-3.0%. Other factors, such as refusal to be interviewed and weighting, may introduce additional error that is more difficult to quantify.

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_NJ_630384.pdf

[Rowan]

Farleigh Dickinson will also be releasing a poll tomorrow.

[Tender Branson]

Farleigh Dickinson will also be releasing a poll tomorrow.

Yepp:

Christie (R) - 45%
Corzine (D) - 39%

How would you rate the job Jon Corzine is doing as governor?

26% Excellent/Good
70% Fair/Poor

Do you approve or disapprove of the job Jon Corzine is doing as governor?

36% Approve
49% Disapprove

The Fairleigh Dickinson University poll of 803 registered voters statewide was conducted by telephone from June 22, 2009, through June 29, 2009, and has a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points.

http://publicmind.fdu.edu/30jun/tab.html

Interesting to see this huge split between the 2 forms of approval ...

[Franzl]

Why the huge difference between the 2 approval indicators?

[Tender Branson]

Why the huge difference between the 2 approval indicators?

Many people probably are unlikely to approve or disapprove and just go with the "so-so-ish" "Fair" ...

Or it's just a dumb poll.

[Tender Branson]

Obama campaigning for Corzine

President Barack Obama is lending some support to embattled Gov. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), who is facing a tough reelection campaign against Republican Chris Christie this year.

Obama will be appearing alongside Corzine at a Rutgers University rally on July 16, according a statement released by the Corzine camp.

The visit comes at an opportune time for Corzine, whose recent approval ratings have been dismal. The governor is hoping to capitalize on the president’s popularity to rally Democrats and like-minded independents to his side.

In June, Vice President Joe Biden stood alongside Corzine as he accepted the Democratic nomination.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/0709/Obama_campaigning_for_Corzine.html

[Rowan]

Okay, he'll be here in July. Let's see if he comes in October when it counts.

[Keystone Phil]

Okay, he'll be here in July. Let's see if he comes in October when it counts.

If Corzine is still trailing or even with Christie, you bet he will be.

[Mr.Phips]

Okay, he'll be here in July. Let's see if he comes in October when it counts.

Of course he will if he wants to get any help from Democrats in Congress on health reform and other issues.  The loss of the New Jersey governorship in 1993 is what convinced Democrats in Congress to abandon Clinton. 

[Rowan]

Per the Star-Ledger:

"Corzine's short list includes Sens. Barbara Buono of Middlesex and Loretta Weinberg of Bergen, and one of those "out of the box" contenders: Randal Pinkett, a Rutgers grad and Rhodes Scholar who was the Season 4 winner of the NBC reality show "The Apprentice."

Christie's short list is a bit longer: Sen. Diane Allen of Burlington; Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini of Monmouth; Assemblyman Jon Bramnick of Union; Bergen County Clerk Kathleen Donovan; and Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno."

All I have to say is...YAWN.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Per the Star-Ledger:

"Corzine's short list includes Sens. Barbara Buono of Middlesex and Loretta Weinberg of Bergen, and one of those "out of the box" contenders: Randal Pinkett, a Rutgers grad and Rhodes Scholar who was the Season 4 winner of the NBC reality show "The Apprentice."

Christie's short list is a bit longer: Sen. Diane Allen of Burlington; Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini of Monmouth; Assemblyman Jon Bramnick of Union; Bergen County Clerk Kathleen Donovan; and Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno."

All I have to say is...YAWN.

If Corzine picks the dude from the Apprentice, then I'll know he's jumped the shark.

[Badger]

Per the Star-Ledger:

"Corzine's short list includes Sens. Barbara Buono of Middlesex and Loretta Weinberg of Bergen, and one of those "out of the box" contenders: Randal Pinkett, a Rutgers grad and Rhodes Scholar who was the Season 4 winner of the NBC reality show "The Apprentice."

Christie's short list is a bit longer: Sen. Diane Allen of Burlington; Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini of Monmouth; Assemblyman Jon Bramnick of Union; Bergen County Clerk Kathleen Donovan; and Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno."

All I have to say is...YAWN.

If Corzine picks the dude from the Apprentice, then I'll know he's jumped the shark.

[Ronnie]

Rasmussen

Christie: 46%
Corzine: 39%

LEANERS:

Christie: 53%
Corzine: 41%

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections2/election_2009/new_jersey/election_2009_new_jersey_governor

[Nutmeg]

Rasmussen
Christie: 46%
Corzine: 39%

Jonmentum!