Christopher Christie

Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Township) at home

MORRIS TOWNSHIP -- Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Township) is not the type of candidate to scurry around his district trying to squeeze out possible last minute votes.  Instead, he is spending the day painting his living room and taking his kids to a firing range. 

"Today there's really nothing much I can do.  In Morris County all the votes that I think can be gotten out already have been gotten out," said Carroll, an attorney, from the home he also uses as his law office. 

Motivating Republican voters in Morris County - the home of their gubernatorial candidate, Chris Christie - is not hard this year.  And Carroll, who sits in a relatively safe Republican district, is not expected to be defeated by Democrats Rebekah Conroy and Wendy Wright. 

That is not to say that Carroll has never faced competition.  After his district-mate, Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham), decided not to seek reelection, Carroll found himself caught up in a three-way primary with Anthony Bucco, Jr. and Freeholder Doug Cabana.

A WABC-TV/SurveyUSA poll shows Republican Christopher Christie leading Gov. Jon Corzine by three percentage points, 45%-42%, with independent Christopher Daggett at 10%. 

Given the dates the poll was conducted, SurveyUSA said the results should be “interpreted cautiously.”

“On 2 of the 3 nights, much of NJ was home watching local teams play in the World Series. And: 1 of the 3 nights was Halloween, when families with children are home in uniquely large numbers. As such, results of this survey should be interpreted cautiously: a narrow Corzine victory is not inconsistent with the data, but a narrow Christie win is more consistent with the data,” wrote the pollster.

The poll of 528 likely voters was conducted October 30-November 1 and has a margin of error of +/- 4.1%.

A Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research poll of 606 likely voters conducted for Democratic strategist James Carville's Democracy Corps shows Cozine leading Christie 41% to 37%, with independent Christopher Daggett getting 15%.  

If Christopher Christie wins the race for governor tomorrow, look for Jeffrey Chiesa to become an extraordinarily powerful man in New Jersey politics.  Christie's longtime friend could find himself on short lists for Chief of Staff, Counsel to the Governor, and Attorney General.

The 44-year-old Chiesa and Christie were law partners at Dughi, Hewit & Palatucci and went to the U.S. Attorney's office together in 2002.  Chiesa served as Chief of the Public Protection Unit, as Counsel to the U.S. Attorney, and as Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney.  He prosecuted former Senate President John Lynch and Harry Parkin, who was Mercer County Executive Robert Prunetti's Chief of Staff.

Chiesa, who let the U.S. Attorney's office last year, has been on the inner circle of the campaign for governor.

A new Quinnipiac University poll has Republican Christopher Christie leading Gov. Jon Corzine by two percentage points, 42%-40%, with 12% for independent Christopher Daggett.  Six percent remain undecided in a gubernatorial race that is just narrowly within the margin of error.

Four days ago, Corzine led 43%-38%, was 13% for Daggett.

Nearly four out of ten (38%) of Daggett supporters say they might change their mind: 39% list Corzine as their second choice, and 29% would go for Christie. 

"Daggett is the key to an incredibly close New Jersey election," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Christie leads 47%-32% among independents, with 17% for Daggett.

Republican Christopher Christie has a six point lead over Gov. Jon Corzine, 47%-41%, with independent Christopher Daggett at 11%, according to a new Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey.  PPP is a North Carolina-based Democratic polling firm.

Christie's lead had increased four points last week and one point three weeks ago.  He has a 52%-29% lead among independents.

Corzine's favorables remain upside-down: 34%-57%.  Christie is at 43%-42%. 

"For most of the last three months the election had moved more and more in Jon Corzine's direction but it appears that his momentum stopped about three weeks ago," said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. "As Chris Daggett's support started to decline Christie's went back up."

The Gloucester County Times endorsed Gov. Jon Corzine for re-election, while the Burlington County Times went for Christopher Christie, giving Christie a 9-7 edge among daily newspaper endorsements.  Two newspapers endorsed an independent, Christopher Daggett.

President Barack Obama will be in New Jersey today, appearing at Corzine campaign rallies in Camden and Newark.  This is Obama's third political trip to New Jersey since July.

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.

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.

A Stockton College poll conducted by Zogby International, shows the
race for governor in a statistical dead heat, with Democrat Jon Corzine
leading Republican Christopher Christie, 40%-39%, with 14% for
independent Christopher Daggett.

Among independents, Christie leads 39%-26%, with 23% for Daggett.

"Less
than a week from the election, only a third of likely voters (34%) say
they would like to see Governor Corzine reelected," said Hughes Center
Executive Director Sharon Schulman. "The majority (59%) want someone
new, including 30% of likely Democratic voters and 70% of Independents
and unaffiliated voters."

 "This is a bad political
environment for an incumbent nationally, but even worse considering New
Jersey's enormous budget problems.  That said, for many voters the
incumbent Governor may be the lesser of two evils and New Jersey has
historically given Democrats the benefit of the doubt," said pollster
John Zogby.  "Both Corzine and Christie have been unsparing with their
attacks and the surprising rise of Chris Daggett is a testament to how
ineffectual both parties have been at appealing to voters.  Daggett's
performance should serve as a warning to Republicans and Democrats.  If
Daggett can surge and get nearer to 20 percent of the vote, we may see
more third party candidates emerge in 2010."