Cynthia Burton

The first gubernatorial debate between Democrat Jon Corzine, Republican Christopher Christie, and independent Christopher Daggett will air on New Jersey Network (NJN) tonight at 8:00 PM.  The 90 minute debate will be broadcast live from NJN Studios in Trenton. 

NJN News anchor Jim Hooker will moderate the debate, and candidates will take questions from three panelists: Michael Aron of NJN News; Bob Ingle of Gannett New Jersey; and Cynthia Burton of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The debate will be simulcast on NJN Public Radio and will be available on the web at njn.net. The debate will also be aired on C-Span.

PolitickerNJ.com's Matt Friedman will live blog during the debate at www.PolitickerNJ.com.

NJN’s Michael Aron will host former U.S. Attorney (and future gubernatorial candidate?) Chris Christie on On the Record this weekend.  The show airs Sunday at 9:00 and 11:00am, and again on Monday at 6:30am. 

On Reporters Roundtable, watch Nick Acocella of Politifax, Cynthia Burton of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Charles Stile of the Bergen Record and yours truly, Matt Friedman.  The show is hosted by NJN Reporter Zachary Fink, and we’ll discuss Steve Lonegan’s gubernatorial run, Chris Christie’s gubernatorial prospects, Rocco Riccio and the Governors’ summit with Obama.  Catch it at 7:00 this evening, or at 10:00am Sunday.

"New Jersey voters deserved a better race this year than the nearly invisible contest between Senator Frank Lautenberg and Richard Zimmer, his Republican challenger," begins the New York Times' endorsement of U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

Although accurate, a generous interpretation of this seemingly hypocritical charge is that it is in fact a veiled criticism of their own paper's decision to ignore the U.S. Senate race in New Jersey. Not once has the Times written a story about the general election contest between Frank Lautenberg and Dick Zimmer. (By comparison, Cynthia Burton at the Philadelphia Inquirer has written 11 pieces on the race.)

To add insult to injury, Zimmer told PolitickerNJ: "One of the editors of the New York Times who interviewed me for their editorial thought I was still a member of Congress."

John Adler and Chris Myers debate on NJN this weekend. Jim Hooker was the moderator.
Tonight on Reporters Roundtable, NJN political reporter Jim Hooker will host a discussion of the Assembly Economic Relief Bill, Gov. Corzine’s economic stimulus speech, the latest New Jersey presidential polls and Bryant Trial testimony.

Discussing the issues will be Kevin McArdle of Millenium Radio; Cynthia Burton of the Philadelphia Inquierer; The Bergen Record’s John Reitmeyer and The Press of Atlantic City’s Derek Harper. 

On NJN’s Reporters Roundtable with Michael Aron, Matt Friedman (PolitickerNJ.com), John Reitmeyer (The Record), Cynthia Burton (Philadelphia Inquirer) and Jonathan Tamari (Gannett New Jersey) join Jim Hooker to talk abou the U.S. Senate primaries, the higher education budget hearing, and Gov. Jon Corzine.  Sunday at 10AM.

Judging by the pre-election coverage, at least two of the state’s congressional races are expected to be among the most hotly contested House seats in the nation.

Perhaps the big story is the Republican’s financial disadvantage given Jim Saxton's and Mike Ferguson’s retirements in 2008. At least that was the focus of the Inquirer’s recent coverage by Cynthia Burton, GOP retirements could prove crucial, (11/21/07). The story highlighted the Republican Party’s electoral loss of a “$2 million head start on campaign fundraising”.