As the campaign for governor intensifies, both Governor Corzine and Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie have begun throwing some not-so-subtle personal jabs.

The latest example is a television ad Governor Corzine released yesterday.  More than a few observers and bloggers noticed the double entendre – whether intentional or not --when the voiceover says that Christie “threw his weight around” as U.S. Attorney to avoid traffic tickets and points on his license.  

Corzine spokesman Sean Darcy indicated today that the campaign did not intend for the comment to be taken literally.   But state Sen. Bill Baroni, who grew up overweight and lost 130 pounds 15 years ago, said that he “immediately” recognized a reference to Christie’s girth in the Corzine ad.

“Tens of thousands of New Jerseyans like me battle weight,” he said.   “To make reference to that in such a blatant way to distract from a discussion about the issues? We’re better than that.”

Corzine also got personal by launching a web ad accusing Christie of doing a favor for a fellow former U.S. Attorney who declined to prosecute his brother.  

But it has cut both ways.  Throughout the campaign, Christie has focused on portraying Corzine – who grew up in rural Illinois and moved to New Jersey in 1975 -- as not just out-of-touch, but out-of-town.  His campaign released a Web ad replaying a Corzine statement about the “Garden State Expressway”, which does not exist.  

“Uhm, Governor...  It’s called the Parkway,” reads text in Christie’s web ad, which then superimposes the Parkway’s sign over Corzine’s mouth and bleeps out the offending term.  

On the stump, Christie frequently emphasizes his own Newark and Livingston roots , while he has brought up the number of nights Corzine spent outside of New Jersey last year. (Independent Christopher Daggett touched on this as well in an ad that skewers both of the major party candidates).  

When a reporter at a campaign event yesterday asked Christie about the “weight” comment, Christie looked right past it.  

“With all the tickets I got, it doesn’t seem like I threw my weight around very effectively.  So let’s just leave it at that,” he said.  

When asked whether he his frequent references to having grown up here was meant to contrast to Corzine’s rural Illinois roots, Christie responded “you’re to read into that that I’m from New Jersey, and having lived here all my life I understand this state as well as anybody.”

Darcy, the Corzine spokesman, responded that “Being born in New Jersey doesn't mean Christie has any sense of Jersey values.”

”Christie sides with big business and opposes paid family leave and he'd reject President Obama's stimulus funds, driving up property taxes by $2 billion dollars,” he said.

In the one television ad he has aired, independent Christopher Daggettdidn't spare either of the major party candidates, portraying them in the worst light that insiders see them in: Corzine as aloof and indecisive, and Christie as a big bully.  

New Jerseyans are used to nasty campaigns.  In 1988, after then first-term Senator Frank Lautenberg portrayed him as a carpet bagger, Republican Pete Dawkins called him a “Swamp Dog.”  Eight years later, the U.S. Senate campaign between then-Congressmen Robert Torricelli and Dick Zimmer would become the stuff legend for the sheer volume of its nastiness.  

In his 2006 book The Twenty-Five Dirtiest Political Campaigns of All Time, author Kerwin Swint ranked Torricelli/Zimmer number 14.  According to Swint, Torricelli even at one point accused Zimmer of “favoring” breast cancer – a line of attack that has a faint echo in Corzine’s negative ads about Christie supporting “mandate free” insurance in which companies could offer pared down plans that excluded mammograms, among other tests.  

“This is not atypical.  Certainly we’ve seen this a number of times,” said Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray.

But those were U.S. Senate races.  And even though both Christie and Corzine have put out some positive ads, they’re being drowned out, said Murray.  

“I do think it’s to the extent where it’s just swamping everything else, which I think makes this unusual,” he said.  “We tend to see this more often in senate races than governor races, because frankly there’s less at stake.”  

Ingrid Reed, Director of the Eagleton Institute’s New Jersey Project, said that the tone of the campaign could change on October 1, when Christie, Corzine and Daggett will engage in their first debate.  

In 1993, for instance, Republican Christie Whitman wrapped up her campaign with a detailed tax plan.  

 “She came out with her tax reduction plan and really captured public attention with that statement of what she’s going to do in office,” said Reed.