When Jon Corzine was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000, he was the first bearded winner of a statewide election in New Jersey since 1902, when John Dryden, the founder of Prudential, won.  Dryden lost his bid for re-election in 1906; if Corzine wins a second term as Governor on Tuesday, he will become the first bearded man to win re-election in a New Jersey statewide since U.S. Sen. John McPherson won his fourth term in the U.S. Senate in 1889.

Air Force One lands in Philadelphia at 12:55 PM, and President Barack Obama is scheduled to arrive at a rally for Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election campaign at the Susquehanna Center in Camden at 1:20 PM.  That means some road and bridge closures between New Jersey and Pennsylvania could affect Garden State residents heading to the Giants vs. Eagles game, which begins on the other side at 1 PM.  So far, there are no reported traffic jams.

The Home News Tribune has urged the ouster of the most incumbent legislators this year: six.  The HNT called for the defeat of Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro), Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton), Joseph Egan (D-New Brunswick), Upendra Chivukula (D-Franklin), Patrick Diegnan (D-South Plainfield), and John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville).  Only Peter Barnes (D-Edison) survived the wrath of the editorial board.  But the HNT also endorsed three incumbent Democrats for re-election to the Middlesex County Board of Freeholders. 

The Courier-News wants five incumbents, all Democrats, to be defeated: Linda Stender (D-Fanwood), Gerald Green (D-Plainfield), Egan, Chivukula, and Diegnan.  They endorsed three GOP incumbents, Peter Biondi (R-Hillsborough), Denise Coyle (R-Bernards), and John DiMaio (R-Hackettstown) and Barnes.

The Courier-Post wants four Democratic legislators gone: five-term Assemblymen Herbert Conaway (D-Delanco) and Jack Connors (D-Pennsauken); and two special election winners -- State Sen. James Beach (D-Voorhees), who went to the Senate after John Adler became a Congressman; and Assemblywoman Celeste Riley (D-Bridgeton), who won a special election convention earlier this year after Douglas Fisher resigned to become state Secretary of Agriculture.   The Gloucester County Times also advocated the defeat of Riley, and the Burlington County Times said Coway should go.

The Record endorsed Republican challengers running against Frederick Scalera (D-Nutley), Joan Voss (D-Fort Lee), and Connie Wagner (D-Paramus); they endorsed ten incumbents for re-election - seven Democrats and three Republicans.  The Record also called for the ouster of Democratic Freeholders in Bergen and Passaic counties.

The Press of Atlantic City endorsed a Republican challenger against freshman Assemblyman Matthew Milam (D-Vineland).  The newspaper backed five incumbents - one Democrat and four Republicans.

Republican Christopher Christie has won the newspaper endorsement game, gaining the support of eight daily newspapers in his bid for Governor.  Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine has won six newspaper endorsements, and two went to independent Christopher Daggett.

Four years ago, nine daily newspapers backed Republican Douglas Forrester for governor, and eight endorsed Corzine.   Corzine lost three newspapers that backed him in 2005: the Press of Atlantic City endorsed Christie, and the Star-Ledger and the Express-Times went with Daggett.  He picked up one Forrester paper, The Record.

So far, the Gloucester County Times has not endorsed a gubernatorial candidate.

The scorecard:

Republican State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Middletown) is part of GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie's inner circle; some details of their friendship are apparent in a log of calls from Kyrillos to Christie between 2002 and 2008.  Kyrillos left messages for Christie at the U.S. Attorney's office 48 times between 2002 and 2008, including 19 times while Kyrillos was the Republican State Chairman, according to a log of Christie's incoming phone calls requested by the Corzine campaign as part of an extensive series of document requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The Corzine campaign received the phone logs late Friday.

Most of the phone messages shed little information as to the topics Christie and Kyrillos were discussing.  Kyrillos tended to call after 5PM, and would usually leave a message that offered little detail.

Kyrillos did call Christie on April 22, 2002, the day Todd Christie wrote a $225,000 check to the Republican State Committee.

The Corzine campaign is paying streetwalkers in Newark $300 per day, while their pay scale in Jersey City in $250 per day.  In Camden, it’s $200. 

One bit of empirical evidence that conservatives who opposed Christopher Christie in the GOP primary will vote for him on Tuesday: Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Oxford) sent out an e-mail today inviting his supporters to join Steven Lonegan at rally in Flemington tomorrow.

Bill Bradley, who represented New Jersey in the United States Senate from 1979 to 1997, will return to the Garden State tomorrow.  He'll campaign in Hamilton and Edison for Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election campaign.

Democrats went over the top negative in the race for State Assembly in District 38, and it cost them the endorsement of The Record.  The re-election campaign of Assemblywomen Joan Voss (D-Fort Lee) and Connie Wagner (D-Paramus) sent out a "Porn and Guns" mailer attacking Judith Fisher for her connection to the pornography industry because she owns a company that sells accounting software to Playboy, and Nicholas Lonzisero for renting space in a building he owns to a gun shop. 

"On the issues, we are more aligned with Wagner and Voss. They have an impressive body of legislative work already. But we, in good conscience, cannot ignore the negative tone of their campaign. For us, it is a deal-breaker," the editorial said.

"Republicans Richard Piatkowski and Peter Kothari are the kinds of rough-edged underdog candidates that don't typically get much attention from voters outside of the most dedicated of party loyalists," the Home News Tribune said in endorsing them for State Assembly in District 19 against incumbent John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) and former Municipal Court Judge Craig Coughlin.

The Courier-Post has endorsed freshman GOP incumbents Dawn Addiego and Scott Rudder for re-election in the 8th district, but praised the Democratic challengers, Scott Brown and Debbie Sarcone, as being up to the job.