Daggett doesn't see 8% in mid-summer with no television as insurmountable

Notching 8% in this week's Quinnipiac University poll, far behind former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie at 53% and Gov. Jon Corzine at 41%, Independent gubernatorial candidate Chris Daggett confirmed that his focus before this month was almost exclusively on trying to qualify for public matching funds, which he did.

"We're at 8% and that's before we've gone on TV and with no advertising," said Daggett, who last week filed to qualify for matching funds, which would land him $1 million for his campaign. "To this point it's been a race between Chris Christie and Jon Corzine, but people are moving in my direction. Independents will decide this election."

According to Quinnipiac, Christie leads Corzine among Independents, 64%-28%, but that lead shrinks to 54%-24% in a contest among Christie, Corzine and Daggett. The latter receives 13% of the Independent vote, 6% of the Democratic vote, and 4% of the Republican vote. 

Ninety-two percent of state voters don't know him.

The poll comes as both the Corzine and Christie camps appear to be respectively delaying their public declaration of running mates. Sources say Daggett, who served as regional director of the federal Environmental Protection Agency under President Ronald Reagan and worked in the administration of Gov. Tom Kean, has approached state Sen. Nia Gill (D-Montclair) and the Rev. Pastor Buster Soaries with LG in his mind - but without success.

"I don't know where they are," Daggett said of Christie and Corzine and their LG timeline. "I'm focused on where I am."   

With two weeks to go before the state deadline, he's still looking, according to sources.

The CW on Daggett, a former Republican who lives in Basking Ridge, is that he will select a person with Democratic Party roots, or an African American from a Democratic Party stronghold to balance his Somerset County projection platform. But the candidate says that's not necessarily true, and argues that just because he doesn't have a personality like Jesse Ventura and was nursed early in his career by Gov. Kean, doesn't mean his independent credentials aren't real.

"I served 20 years ago in the Kean administration," said Daggett, "and I served in positions where it was necessary to be non-partisan, and where it was necessary to rely on science, and fact, and public policy. My track record as a professional has always been my ability to bring disparate groups together. Remember, I've been in the private sector for the last 20 years, and it was this Democratic governor who appointed me to head the DEP (Department of Environmental Commission) Task Force. I am not GOP establishment."

The candidate denied a rumor that former Gov. Kean, a staunch Christie backer, or someone close to the former governor, asked him to get out of the gubernatorial race.

"There is no truth to that whatsoever," said Daggett. "I had no conversation with Tom Kean. Nobody's asked me to get out of the race."

He added with a laugh, "Today (Wednesday), when I went on 101.5 FM, a caller suggested I name Christie as my lieutenant governor, and I thought that was interesting."