George Bush

The outcome of the 2009 campaign for Governor of New Jersey is not historically significant to Barack Obama's presidency. It is almost twice as likely that New Jerseyans elect a governor who is not a member of the president's party.  Indeed, the party of the incumbent president is 15-26 in New Jersey gubernatorial races since a Democrat won in Abraham Lincoln's mid-term election.

The last five gubernatorial elections went that way: Republicans lost in 1989 (George H.W. Bush), 2001 and 2005 (George W. Bush), and Democrats lost in 1993 and 1997 (Bill Clinton). But in the seven contests before that, the party of the sitting president went 6-1: Republicans won in 1969 (Richard Nixon), 1981, and 1985 (Ronald Reagan), and Democrats won in 1961 (John Kennedy), 1965 (Lyndon Johnson), and 1977 (Jimmy Carter); Republicans lost in 1973, after the incumbent was defeated in the primary and in an election that was held under the backdrop of the Watergate scandal.

None those twelve campaigns influenced the outcomes of the next presidential campaign, either nationally or in pursuit of New Jersey's electoral votes - although the 1973 results were a harbinger of the 1974 Democratic landslide.  By 1976, New Jersey was supporting a Republican presidential candidate.

Democrats won both gubernatorial elections held during Dwight Eisenhower's presidency, and Republicans won both governors' races held while Harry Truman was president.  During the four campaigns for governor that occurred during Franklin Roosevelt's tenure in the White House, Democrats won two (1937 and 1940) and lost two (1934 and 1943).  Eisenhower carried New Jersey twice, and Roosevelt won the state four times.

A poll of New Jersey voters taken three weeks before the 1968 presidential election had independent George Wallace with 14% of the vote, with Richard Nixon leading Hubert Humphrey by a 43%-38% margin.  Both parties agreed that Wallace was taking more votes from the Democrats than the Republicans. 

A Gallup poll conducted outside two New Jersey auto plants had Wallace getting 73% of the vote among 500 members of the United Auto Workers Union.  "Listen, the men in the plants want to zap the Negros by voting for Wallace.  It's that simple.  And I don't see how anyone can stop them," a UAW official told the New York Times in a quote that 41 years later appears rather incredible.

On Election Day, Nixon carried New Jersey by 61,261 votes, 46%-44%.  Wallace took 9%, less than where he was polling, receiving 262,187 votes.

The following is a statement by Maria Comella, Christie-Guadagno Campaign spokesperson, in response to a report that GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie talked to former Bush political mastermind Karl Rove.

“Mr. Rove's testimony confirms what we've known all along, that Chris' appointment as U.S. Attorney was based on his qualifications and his subsequent performance as U.S. Attorney was based on the facts of each case, not on politics," Comella said. "Furthermore, since even before the 2005 election there has been great speculation about whether Chris would ultimately run for some form of elected office. 

"As such, it is not surprising that as the Bush Administration was winding down, Mr. Rove inquired about Chris' future plans once his term as U.S. Attorney would come to an end," Comella added. "In this informal conversation, Chris discussed with Mr. Rove the fact he was being urged to run for elected office and Mr. Rove in turn offered to recommend people who could help Chris reach a decision if he eventually seriously considered running for office.”

They say they've been stymied in their repeated attempts to obtain public information about Chris Christie from the U.S. Attorney's Office, and now the Corzine campaign wants Christie himself to intervene and help deliver need-to-know info, a move the Democrats argue would square the former U.S. Attorney with the GOP candidate advertised.

“Mr. Christie’s campaign website says he will demand greater transparency and accountability in government,” said state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor. “So why doesn’t he start with himself? What’s he hiding?”

Corzine's people say they requested basic government information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from Christie's former place of employ, "but more than 20 requests dating back to March remain unfulfilled. As a result, records of Christie’s budgets, travel at taxpayer expense and no-bid contracts he awarded remain secret."

Careful to invoke President Barack Obama - whose administration revamped federal guidelines governing FOIA to create more openness - Weinberg also went after a Christie pressure point: President George W. Bush.

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park), right, and Gov. Jon Corzine.

The headlining presence of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at a Chris Christie fundraiser last night in Holmdel rankled U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park), who made particular note of Romney and Christie's shared allegiance to former President George W. Bush, a bottom feeder on New Jersey public opinion polls for the bulk of time he served in office.

"Chris Christie is kicking off his (general election) campaign with a conservative Republican whose extreme right-wing positions couldn't be more out of touch with New Jersey residents," Lautenberg said of Romney, a failed 2008 candidate for president.

"Mitt Romney has repeatedly denounced President Obama's economic recovery package, has declared his opposition to a woman's right to choose, condemned the President's selection of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court, and proven himself to be a prime supporter and was a cheerleader for George W. Bush," Lautenberg said in a Democratic State Committee press release.

While running for president, Romney said he was a "conservative's conservative" and didn't hide his admiration for Bush.

DEMOCRATIC LEADERS SAY CHRISTIE IS TOO CONSERVATIVE FOR NEW JERSEY

“Why would we want a George Bush clone in New Jersey after we finally got rid of him?”

TRENTON – Democratic state chairman Joe Cryan, Senator Loretta Weinberg and Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman today said that the Republican primary voters have yet again chosen a gubernatorial candidate too conservative for New Jersey and out of touch with the mainstream values of the Garden State.

With the release of an audio tape from Osama bin Laden on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the U.S. led invasion of Iraq, did the most wanted fugitive on the planet signal that another Al Qaeda attack on America is imminent?   

There has been a pattern to the attacks on America by Al Qaeda since the February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.  Although the attack injured more than a one thousand Americans and killed six, newly elected president Bill Clinton did not launch a global "war on terror" in his first year in office.  Instead, U.S. law enforcement authorities successfully hunted down the perpetrators who were then tried, convicted and jailed. 

Former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan

On their way to tomorrow’s inauguration, Democrats are running past the Bush presidency as if it were the forgotten carcass of Commodus at the end of “Gladiator,” but they mean to at least sufficiently resuscitate what they see as the wreckage of the Bush years in order to make it an issue for former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, should he land the GOP nomination for governor. 

In the meantime, don’t expect Bush’s name to come up much in attack dog primary ads.  

“His 21% approval is actually up five points from just before the election, a difference reflected in the fact that half of Republicans (50%) now approve of the president, while about a third disapprove (36%),” said Fairleigh Dickinson University pollster Peter Woolley.  “Before the November election the numbers were reversed: half of Republicans disapproved of Bush and about a third approved (37%)."

The biggest indictment that the talking heads level against Bush is that he has refused to make America like the rest of the world.  We think he did a good thing.  America is great because it is NOT like the rest of the world. It is a different place. That’s’ why people want to come here. 

Mayor Cory Booker, center, with Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, left, and jazz pianist Eric Lewis

NEWARK – On the city’s 21st anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, 72 hours before Obama’s presidential inaugural, Newarkers at Grace Episcopal Church rejoiced in a ceremony of blended Obama-MILK symbolism that apparently left no room or reason for last minute retaliatory elbows thrown at the outgoing Bush administration. 

In short, the most joyfully considered and relevant transition of power here was from King to Obama. 

“I’m a child of the 1960s. There are still a few of us around, right, Mildred?” said Gov. Jon Corzine, finding Council President Mildred Crump’s smiling face in the crowd. “King defined our aspirations, and what we could seek to find. When he was killed in Memphis he was talking about a living wage. We have a long way to go, but at this moment, when Barack Obama is sworn in, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream will become a reality. 

“God bless the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the presidency of Barack Obama,” added Corzine, and moments later, Crump cried, “That’s my governor,” as people in the crowd lurched to their feet.