Carteret

July 4, 2009 - 1:44am

Corzine focuses Friday evening energies on Carteret

By Max Pizarro, PolitickerNJ.com Reporter

Gov. Jon Corzine campaigns with Middlesex County Freeholder Ronald Rios and family in Carteret at the Independence Day Festival on Friday evening.

CARTERET - The barges and freighters come through here on their way to Raritan Bay and passing on the Friday before the Fourth of July, some of them give a blast to the crowd gathered at the Carteret Municipal Marina where Staten Island almost seems a strong sidearm throw away but where the band plays the obligatory Springsteen cover - lest anyone doubt this is the Jersey side of the river.

In this case it's "Pink Cadillac" as Gov. Jon Corzine heads through the corridor of tents mobbed with revelers eager for nighttime.

An old factory town literally split in half by the Turnpike, Carteret occupies a point on the Arthur Kill that looks like it could crack off with the weight of reinforced concrete and rustbelt reject silos, warehouses stacked almost to the water's edge and now clusters of condos. The feeling in the working class crowd Friday is more than upbeat on the eve of Independence Day, with plates of ethnic food reflective of more mixed culture than any one definable or dominant strain.

Politically it's not as commingled.

While 12 of Middlesex County's 25 towns have more registered voters than Carteret, the 10,797 registereds here are 4-1 Democrat over Republican with half unaffiliated.

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