James Polk

Since 1824, when direct elections began, nine American Presidents never carried New Jersey: Martin Van Buren, James Polk, Abraham Lincoln, Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, Harry Truman, Jimmy Carter, and George W. Bush.  Of the ten best Presidents ranked by historians in a 2009 C-Span poll, New Jersey cast a majority of its electoral votes for all but Lincoln and Truman, and voted to support six of the worst: James Buchanan, William Henry Harrison, Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Pierce, and Hayes.

One of the ten best Presidents was a New Jerseyan, Woodrow Wilson, who served as Governor from 1911 to 1913.  Wilson carried New Jersey in his first campaign, but lost it when he ran for re-election in 1916.  Before the direct election of Presidents, New Jersey supported James Madison for President in 1808, but not when Madison ran for a second term in 1812.

It's tough to stump Steve Adubato, Sr. on political trivia, especially when the question is about Newark politics.  And The Inside Edge should have know better than to ask him to name the last Mayor of Newark to run statewide.  Adubato had no trouble coming up with the name of Vincent Murphy, who was the Democratic candidate for Governor in 1943; Murphy lost to Republican Walter Edge by nearly 147,000 votes.  (Murphy lost his bid for re-election to a third term as Mayor in 1949, and served as President of the New Jersey AFL-CIO from 1961 to 1970.)  

Adubato told PolitickerNJ.com's Max Pizarro that "no Mayor of Newark ever succeeded statewide. They either went to jail or oblivion."  He's right.

Look at Theodore Frelinghuysen, a member of one of New Jersey's premier political families.  Frelinghuysen was elected to the U.S. Senate (on his second try) in 1828, at age 41, but lost his bid for re-election six years later.  In 1837, he won a two-year term as Mayor of Newark -- the last election he would ever win. Frelinghuysen, the great-great-great-uncle of U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelyinghuysen, was the Whig candidate for Vice President on Henry Clay's ticket in 1844 and lost to Democrats James Polk and George Dallas -- although the did carry New Jersey, with 50.5% of the vote.