Maybe Jim Florio is doing Jennifer Beck's opposition research?

In New Jersey, politician farmers and opponents with opposition researchers aren't always perfect togther.

Last week, Republican State Senate candidate Jennifer Beck criticized Democratic incumbent Ellen Karcher for taking a farmland tax credit on her 8-acre Marlboro home, where she grows Christmas trees. Beck said Karcher only sold six trees, but it seems her campaign misread the paperwork. It wasn't six trees, it was six acres of trees.

Duirng the summer of 1993, Democratic Governor Jim Florio made an issue out of tax benefits Republican Christine Todd Whitman received for the 237-acre farm she lives on in Hunterdon County. Whitman later invited reporters to her home; she gave them a tour, and lunch -- "hamburgers, lamb, potato salad and deviled egg -- all of the fixings raised or grown on Pontefract."

Karcher took a page out of Whitman's playbook, and gave reporters a look at her own farm last week.

Florio had a second farm problem during that campaign, which he lost to Whitman by about 26,000 votes: his campaign attacked Whitman for taking advice on agricultural issues from a Burlington County farmer named William Haines, who had been fined $30,000 for the improper use of dangerous pesticides -- and for not providing farmworkers with toilets. But Florio got it wrong: Whitman's advisor was "Peaches Bill" Haines, a GOP State Senator who operated a peach farm. The embattled farmer was "Cranberry Bill" Haines, who was not involved in the Whitman campaign.