JON CORZINE

AFL-CIO Prez Charles Wowkanech on Election Day, 2007

Another strategy wouldn't have changed the outcome, he acknowledges, but Charles Wowkanech, president of the New Jersey AFL-CIO, admitted today that the 11th hour influx of big rallies inhibited the Central Labor Council's ability to lock in on GOTV in the closing days of the gubernatorial campaign.

"I don't want this to come off as negative or critical of the campaign, which did a great job, but you can't have rallies three times a week," said Wowkanech, whose coordinated labor effort registered wins at the legislative level but watched Gov. Jon Corzine get unseated by Republican challenger Chris Christie.

"Our people were working every weekend, doing labor walks," said the labor leader, reflecting on the last two weeks of the campaign wherein the Corzine camp spread out a constellation of Democratic Party luminaries including President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton, the Kennedy family, etc.

"I'm not second guessing anyone, but trying to run our program and make all these events - two and three times a week - was tough."

Gov. Jon Corzine is vacationing in St. Barts, according to a report in the New York Post.  Corzine, girlfriend Sharon Elghanayan, and two friends arrived by private plan on Friday and are staying in a rented villa on Flamands Beach, the newspaper reported.

Now that  the dust has finally settled after the grueling campaign for governor, there are a number of lessons that we can draw from this election.

First and foremost, this was a "pocketbook" election. The No. 1 issue on the minds of voters was the state of the economy, followed closely by concern over skyrocketing property taxes. Indeed, nearly 90 percent of those polled indicated that they were concerned with the condition of the national economy.

Whether it was fair or not, Governor Corzine's fate was ultimately tied to the recession, which has placed a tremendous strain on state resources and has severely reduced state revenues. This combination has placed New Jersey in a critical fiscal condition.

MORRISTOWN - The happiest Democrat in Morris County.

That would be Tim Dougherty, who on Tuesday night won the Morristown mayor's race with 64.62% of the vote on a night when every municipality went for home county gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie by large margins with the exception of Dover, Victory Gardens and Morristown.

Doherty took pride in the fact that he won without going negative on his opponent, local businessman Jimmy Gervasio. 

"I told (campaign strategist Barrett) Tommy I'm not putting out one piece of negative literature," said the mayor-elect. "Why? I figured somebdy's gotta start doing it that way. Voters want to hear about what you're going to do."

In the primary, Dougherty built a coalition among African Americans, progressives, Latinos and downtown business people to crush veteran Morristown political animal Mayor Donald Cresitello.

Data to be Used for State Planning Purposes Kept Secret

Senator Christopher “Kip” Bateman (R-Somerset), continued to call on Governor Jon Corzine today to release the results of a Rutgers study provided to the State Planning Commission that projects future population, employment and housing numbers in New Jersey. The numbers from the Rutgers Study apparently indicate that job growth for the period encompassing the years 2008 to 2028 will only amount to 6, 550 annually, compared with the administration’s previous projection of 54, 000 over the same period.

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One of the more aggressive critics of Gov.-elect Chris Christie early in the campaign, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) today said he plans to reach out to Christie and establish working relations with him for the sake of New Jersey.

"I wish Chris Christie well," said Pascrell. "It's going to be a tough four years overcoming the last eight years of national inaction."

The former mayor of Paterson and veteran 8th District congressman last year mused on a potential bid for the governship in the event that Corzine did not seek re-election. 

Asked if he intends to run for governor in 2013, Pascrell said, "No, it's too early to talk about that now."

Pascrell said he has not talked to defeated Gov. Jon Corzine since the governor's loss to Christie on Tuesday.

"The governor was unable to overcome some unfavorable perceptions many voters had of him," said the congressman. "Most of the Democrats running for (the legislature) didn't run with the governor, and I think it's clear he was also unable to overcome that. He was not able to articulate what he accomplished. This governor accomplished a lot of things. The state budget is the same as it was four years ago. He was trying to do his part with the caps." 

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton)

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton) today blamed party bosses for deal-making when they should have been focused on re-electing Gov. Jon Corzine.

"Party leaders undermined the governor by having a party leadership fight," said Gusciora. "They reinforced the message that if Corzine won, the reins of power would be handed over to special interests."

Asked on Election Day morning about the intra-party deal cultivated by South Jersey Democratic Party leader George Norcross III and Newark North Ward Democratic Party boss Steve Adubato, Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden) dismissed its larger-scale impact on voter production.

"It's inside baseball and affected very few people beyond Trenton," said Roberts of a North-South deal that would oust Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) in exchange for Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford), and launch Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) into the lower house leadership chair being vacated by Roberts.

Senate President Richard Codey says the White House talked to him about running for Governor if Jon Corzine dropped his re-election bid, according to a must-read story in the Star-Ledger.  Codey says that Corzine was close to ending his bid for a second term last July, especially after a large group of Hudson County politicians were arrested on federal corruption charges, and said that White House political director Patrick Gaspard told him their internal polls had him leading Republican Christopher Christie. 

Worth noting is a huge load of crap from Democratic National Chairman Tim Kaine, who issued a press release last night suggesting that he never really thought Jon Corzine would win re-election.  "In New Jersey, the party in power in the White House hasn't won the Governor's office since 1985... It would have been historic if not unprecedented to win one or both of these races given historical trends," Kaine wrote. 

The race for Governor "turned on local and state issues and circumstances and on the candidates in each race - and despite what some will certainly claim - the results are not predictive of the future or reflective of the national mood or political environment," Kaine said.  "Exit polls showed that both races turned on local issues... the President's approval ratings are better today than the share of the vote he received in 2008."

Despite his public flirtation with Republican Christopher Christie, State Sen. Brian Stack appears to have delivered for the gubernatorial candidate of his party, Democrat Jon Corzine.  In Union City, where Stack is mayor and heads the local Democratic organization, Corzine beat Christie 8,300 to 2,191 (77%-20%).  Four years ago, Corzine beat Republican Douglas Forrester 9,385 to 2,459 (79%-20%).  While turnout was down, Christie actually got less votes in Union City than Forrester did.  Some of the credit for this goes to U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, who leaned on Stack to stay entirely within the Democratic fold.