John Budzash

January 22, 2009 - 11:11am

INSIDE EDGE

The Corzine challenge: can he do better against Ken Balut than Dick Hughes did against Bill Clark?

By Wally Edge

Gov. Richard J. Hughes won 91% of the vote in the 1965 Democratic gubernatorial primary, when he sought re-election to a second term.

Only twice have incumbent statewide officeholders lost primary elections. They were both Republicans: in 1973, U.S. Rep. Charles Sandman defeated Governor William Cahill by a 58%-41% margin; and in 1978, when four-term U.S. Senator Clifford Case lost to Jeffrey Bell, a 35-year-old former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, by a 51%-49% margin.

In 1977, Governor Brendan Byrne had ten opponents in the Democratic primary, including two Congressmen, a State Senator, and his own Commissioner of Labor. Byrne won with 30% of the vote; U.S. Rep. Robert Roe came in second with 23%.

The most high profile primary against an incumbent came in 2008, when 84-year-old U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg faced a major challenge from U.S. Rep. Robert Andrews. Lautenberg won 59% of the vote in the Democratic primary, with 35% for Andrews and 6% for Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello.

Lautenberg has faced two minor challenges as an incumbent. He won 81% against Bill Campbell and Lynne Speed in 1994 and 80% against Elnardo Webster (the father of a powerful Democratic lawyer) and Harold Young in 1988.

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