JON CORZINE

Six out of ten New Jersey voters said that President Barack Obama was not a factor in their vote for governor, according to exit polls conducted by a consortium of major news organizations.  Among voters who said Obama's support guided them, 19% said he pushed them to Gov. Jon Corzine, and 20% said he helped them decide to vote for someone else.

Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer (D-Newark) this evening in the South Ward.

NEWARK - The late push has begun in Newark's five wards. Anything slow early was explained away with the emphatic point that after work numbers will swell the outcome.

In the East Ward, after playing basketball with children outside a polling place, Mayor Cory Booker climbs into a car and squeals away - bound for East Side High School.

On Adams Street, in party headquarters, the core of the East Ward Democratic Party brain trust sits in their usual Election Day chairs around a table in a back room: veteran political operative Joe Parlavecchio, Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark), and East Ward Councilman Augusto Amador, among others.

"We are projected to do a little better than the 2005 gubernatorial election," says Coutinho.

In the troubled Central Ward, which lost its party chairman this past summer, Councilman Charles Bell says their numbers are not tracking as well as the 2005 election.

Payne operating in the South Ward

NEWARK - U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark) stands in front of headquarters on Bergen in the South Ward and he's guardedly optimistic.

The South Ward is now at 4,000 votes recorded, or a fifth of what the South Ward attained in 2008 for President Barack Obama. Before the end of Election Day, Payne wants to get 12,000 votes for Gov. Jon Corzine in this ward, the biggest in the city, and the one where Mayor Cory Booker is arguably the least popular.

This is former Mayor Sharpe James's old ward, and at the Galilee Baptist Church - the polling place in James's home district - turnout is relatively good.

At 3 p.m., the district recorded 301 votes, or 133 votes shy of half of the votes people here turned out last year for Obama.

"It's on target," says Payne of the south. "It's light compared to a presidential year - certainly compared to last year, but I think what we do here will enable us to eke out a narrow victory."

NEWARK - The North Ward reports good performance numbers.

"AS of 3 p.m., there were 4,400 votes cast," said North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos. "That's about 42-43% of what it was last year (When Barack Obama was at the top of the ticket), so we're considering that to be good turnout."

Independent Christopher Daggett – whose poll numbers have dropped a bit from the peak a couple weeks ago – does not want to even entertain the talk of not winning tonight until the votes are counted.

“I don’t know what people are thinking out there. I can tell you this: there are an awful lot of undecided people out there.  Even at 3:00 in the afternoon, people who have not voted yet are at work struggling between what they really want to do and they know is the right thing to do, but have been led to believe they should use their vote against something rather than for something,” he said.

Daggett started the morning in Metro Park in Edison, went home to Basking Ridge to vote, did an interview on MSNBC and campaigned during the lunch hour in Fort Lee.  His campaign will gather later tonight back at the Dolce Basking Ridge Hotel.  

“I would say the really encouraging thing for me in this campaign… is the number of people who told me they weren’t going to vote at all until I got into the race, and they are going to vote now because I’m in it,” he said.

East Ward Democratic Party leader Joe Parlavecchio, left, emerging from Sunday's Obama rally at the Rock with Essex County Democratic Committee Chairman Phil Thigpen

NEWARK - The East Ward - home of the Ironbound and the smallest ward in Newark - is performing above expectations early, according to veteran East Ward Democratic leader Joseph Parlavecchio.

"We have a major, major GOTV operation," Parlavecchio told PolitickerNJ.com. "The tally was 1,800 at noon, which is ahead of your typical mayoral and and local council election, which turns out 3,200 in the East at the end of the night.

"Remember," added the East Warder, "this is a blue collar community, people are working today, and the majority of them who will vote will come and vote after 5 o'clock."

The councilman's father, state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark), overseeing operations days before Election Day.

NEWARK - West Ward Councilman Ronald C. Rice says his ward - overseen for over two decades by his father, state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark) - is performing well early on Election Day.

"We just had our first round of numbers checks," Rice told PolitickerNJ.com.

The districts targeted for "surge" Obama voters are driving the numbers up to best expectations, Rice maintains. 

"In district 7, for example, the mark at the end of the day for Gov. Jon Corzine in 2005 was 200 votes at 8 p.m.," said the councilman. "As of noon today, that same district is reporting 92 votes.

NEWARK - Overall turnout in New Jersey's largest city is hovering near 30% of where it was last year when Barack Obama ultimately racked over 77,112 votes, according to Democratic Party sources on the ground.

That is below the goal of 50% the Corzine campaign wants in Newark, where incumbent Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine won 39,573 votes in 2005.

A South Ward source says operations are "humming, not buzzing."

The Democratic incumbent's targeted Obama allies - so-called "surge voters" - are going to the polls, however, the response by regular registered voters in other South Ward districts is light so far, says the source.

Central Ward Councilman Charles Bell last year on the campaign trail.

NEWARK- A year ago they were fighting each other, but their local rivalry in the Central Ward created sparks from below that ignited  Barack Obama fervor from above to create an excellent environment for high Democratic Party turnout in New Jersey's biggest city.

This year, Central Ward Councilman Charles Bell and the man he defeated, labor leader Eddie Osborne, are on the same team and both seeing the battle develop from the same forward position.

"It's moderate turnout compared to last year, nothing like Obama," Bell said of Election Day turnout. "I will say this, though: compared to most gubernatorial years, turnout is pretty good."

Bell admitted that the Central Ward has been an organizational trouble spot in Newark for the Corzine campaign.

Menendez addresses South Jersey labor this morning.

CHERRY HILL - U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-Hoboken) campaigns in Camden County today for incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine.

"The eyes of the nation are on New Jersey," cries the senator at this labor rally behind Camden County Democratic Committee headquarters.

He forges the connection between GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie and the man for whom Christie fundraised in the 2000 election before landing the job as U.S. Attorney as a returned favor from Bush.

"Are you going to vote for a Bush pioneer who will try to implement the same policies that led us into the worst economy since the Great Depression?" asks Menendez to scattered boos.