Jay Webber

MADISON - Gov. Jon Corzine's campaign thought they were well positioned to win re-election against former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie leading right up to Election Day, Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan (D-Union) said today at a joint event with his Republican counterpart, Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains) at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

"Candidly, we thought we were going to win. We had numbers that showed on the Sunday before the election that we were in a position to win," said Cryan who, along with Webber, is also an assemblyman. 

Cryan made the point in response to a question from FDU pollster and political science professor Peter Woolley about whether the Democratic Party abandoned Corzine.  Although there were clearly base problems and the unaffiliated vote went heavily for Christie, the loss did not result in part from party leaders scuttling the campaign, as some have suggested after looking at the anemic turnout from the state's Democrat-rich urban voting districts. 

"We ran a campaign that appealed to the Democratic core in the hopes it would bring folks forward," Cryan said.  "Certainly we tried very hard to inspire the new Obama voter, who clearly needed more inspiration than we could provide." 

Cryan said that the campaign had trouble cutting through with their message.  Corzine had provided real tax relief, he argued, but it didn't live up to the campaign promise of "40 in 4" he made in 2005.

"You might have heard us mention more than once that we had the most property tax relief in history. It's not a lie -- we did. But nobody believed it," he said.

Webber argued that Corzine's appeal to their base on mammograms, abortion and guns did not work because the election above all a referendum on Corzine's four years in office.

"There's no one element of the campaign or election season that this is the reason why or that is the reason why. It is both a referendum on the incumbent and I think a real vote of confidence for our new governor," he said.

Webber said that Christie's victory showed that conservatives can win in traditionally Democratic states like New Jersey, though he stopped short of saying that it signifies a conservative resurgence in blue states. 

Christie, Webber said, did not run away from questions on hot button social issues.  But he didn't emphasize them. 

"You have your conservative principles and beliefs. You don't back away from them or try to explain them - you defend them when you have to.  But you talk about those kitchen table issues that voters care about," he said. "Certainly, Chris demonstrated that pro-life, pro-traditional family, pro-voucher, pro-tax cut Republican can win in New Jersey."

Republicans have hired Benjamin Ginsberg, one of the nation's top election law experts, as national counsel for legislative and congressional redistricting in 2011.  Ginsberg served as counsel to the Bush/Cheney campaigns in 2000 and 2004, and has worked for the Republican National Committee.  His appointment was announced jointly by GOP State Chairman Jay Webber, Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield), and Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany).

As State Chairman, Webber will name all five Republicans on the legislative redistricting commission - presumably in consultant with Kean, DeCroce and Gov.-elect Christopher Christie.  For the congressional redistricting commission, Webber, Kean and DeCroce each get two appointments.

The Ginsberg appointment marks an unusually early start for Republicans on redistricting.  Democrats started their redistricting process back in 1999, more than a year before the GOP.

Webber at Christie's election night party

PARSIPPANY – Republican State Chairman/Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains) was optimistic about Chris Christie’s chances tonight, and he said he was basing it on evidence – even if he wasn’t sharing specific numbers.

“The turnout we’re tracking has been very strong in the heavily Republican areas, and the last turnout model I saw had turnout had turnout a little light in the Democratic areas,” he said in the ballroom of the Parsippany Hilton, where Christie will take the stage later tonight to either claim victory, concede defeat, or neither if the race turns out too close to call.  

When asked how the Republicans’ get out the vote effort compared to four years ago, Webber was unequivocal.

“This effort it the best grass roots effort that the party has ever put together,” he said.

A lawyer for the state Democratic Party wants county clerks to stop rejecting applications for mail-in ballots solely on the basis of signature mismatches.

Instead, Democratic State Committee General Counsel Paul Josephson thinks county clerks should send those applicants provisional ballots -- a position that troubles Republican State Chairman Jay Webber. 

“To date more than 2,300 persons have been denied VBM ballots based on signature comparison alone,” wrote Josephson in a letter dated yesterday to Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells.  “Allowing these people to cast provisional ballots most efficiently provides a fail safe mechanism whereby their electoral choices can be timely submitted and evaluated.”

Josephson said that many more Democratic and unaffiliated voters’ ballots had been rejected based on their signatures than those of Republicans’.  He also said that the disparity in rejection rates between counties indicates that all clerks are not applying a uniform standard.

“It is our position that unless and until a uniform process for signature comparison is implemented by all clerks, and in view of the disparate rejection rate to date, no VBM application should be rejected solely on the basis of a signature comparison by county clerk staff, who are over-worked and are likely not trained in handwriting analysis.”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie struck a familiar tone today, trumpeting the conviction of a political figure indicted when he was U.S. Attorney – in this case former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero. 

But the big difference between today’s press conference phone call and the seven years of pressers Christie held as the state’s top federal prosecutor was that he laid part of the blame for the state’s corrupt political culture on Gov. Jon Corzine.

Christie said Corzine "enabled" Ferriero  ecause Corzine gave Bergen County Democrats over $400,000 when Ferriero led the party.

“The Governor bears some degree of responsibility for this as well because, sadly, he gave over $400,000 of his own personal money to enable this felon to lead the Bergen County Democratic Organization— in fact to lord over the Bergen county political scene for  much of the last decade.”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie today released a full list of all contributions made by the Christie Family Foundation through last month and has called on Gov. Jon Corzine to do the same.

"Yesterday, Jon Corzine released just a part of his foundation's financial contributions, omitting the last 10 months," said Christie campaign manager Bill Stepien.  "Does the Governor think we wouldn't notice that he failed to disclose his election year contributions?

Stepien and Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains), the Republican State Chairman, says that Corzine didn't go far enough when he released contributions made by his charitable foundation through the end of 2008, and wants to know who got contributions this year.

Two state Republican leaders are calling on Gov. Jon Corzine to release contributions made by his charitable foundation.  PolitickerNJ.com reported on Saturday that Corzine has sought an extension to file his tax returns for the Jon S. Corzine Foundation.

Corzine has faced similar criticisms in past campaigns.  During his 2000 U.S. Senate race, Corzine avoided questions about his foundation until political pressure forced him to reveal his contributions.  The foundation had donated more than $250,000 to future supporters, including Rev. Reginald Jackson's church, Stephen Adubato's North Ward Cultural Center, Rev. Jesse Jackson's Operation Rainbow/PUSH, and Planned Parenthood.  All helped him secure the Democratic nomination in a heated primary with former Gov. Jim Florio.

"Once again, Governor Corzine chooses to hide the ball from the voters. Before they go to the polls, the people have a right to know about where Jon Corzine spreads his millions around the State," said Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains), the Republican State Chairman.  "For years, he has used his foundation money to buy political chits. Now, before his biggest election, the people deserve the opportunity to see where he's putting his money, and whether he is trying to ‘make problems disappear' and ‘win friends during his election campaign.' Unfortunately, transparency is not a hallmark of the Corzine Administration, and this concealment of his foundation's records is just another example of the Governor's failure to meet his obligations to the people."

Republican State Chairman Jay Webber today accused Gov. Jon Corzine of "manipulating official data for the Governor's reelection," but Department of Workforce and Labor Development Commissioner David Socolow said that would be impossible. 

At issue was a downward revision of the number of private sector jobs created in July from 13,000 to 5,600.  The Governor used the 13,000 in his reelection campaign as evidence that his economic policies are working.

Given the leaked email Corzine Deputy Chief of Staff Mark Matzen sent to department heads asking them to "get creative" to show how Corzine's economic policies were creating jobs, however, Webber said the revision could not be based on an innocent mistake.

"This memo that we found yesterday lends credence to the suspicion that those numbers were artificially inflated in August," he said.

But Socolow said that the unemployment numbers come from the federal government, and that while his office has a role in inputting some additional data, it would be impossible to fudge anything.

The New Jersey Republican State Committee is seeking public documents related to the alleged political activities of senior administration officials, and filed several requests under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) today.

The GOP wants all communications between Gov. Jon Corzine's Deputy Chief of Staff, Mark Matzen, and other senior aides, concerning private sector job creation numbers for the last two months.  An e-mail sent by Matzen to cabinet members asking them to come up with creative ways to spin the governor's record on job creation were obtained by several media organizations, including PolitickerNJ.com, yesterday.

"The Corzine Administration memo released yesterday now confirms that administration officials have been pressured to bolster the Governor's re-election efforts by not playing it straight with their official duties," said Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains), the Republican State Chairman.  "The Governor is telling them to get 'creative' and 'stretch' the truth. We know the Governor can't create jobs, now it looks like he had his staff cook the books to create them out of thin air."

Rob Corrales, a spokesman for the governor's office, accused Republican legislators of using public funds to coordinate a political message with GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie.

Spinning back at news accounts of Chris Christie’s spending on hotel rooms while U.S. Attorney, Republicans today pointed to the state’s latest unemployment report.

“I think it’s a silly distraction from what people really care about, like the unemployment report that says New Jersey hemorrhaged jobs,” said Republican State Chairman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains), who is also an assemblyman.  

According to numbers released this morning by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, the state’s unemployment rate ticked up a bit to match the national rate of 9.8%.  The state lost 12,000 private sector jobs that month, more than canceling out the touted 5,600 private sector job gain in July and 2,900 gain in August (the July gain had been revised down from 12,000).  

“That’s what we care about.  Not FOIA requests on travel expenses,” said Webber.

The hotel story was based on documents obtained by the Corzine campaign through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the U.S. Attorneys Office.