John McCain

PASSAIC – It’s bleak on Monday.  The sky never disgorges the rain and people stand around in the streets and talk about what’s going to go down here tomorrow.

There’s one day left in this five-man race for a seat left vacant by a man in federal prison, and most have a good idea about who’s wearing wires and where the money’s coming from, but no one knows who’s going to win.

Not if they’re telling the truth.

Campaign headquarters are almost up to full strength several hours before real estate developer Jose Sandoval, physician Alex Blanco, code enforcement inspector/School Board President Vinny Capuana, bail bondsman Carl Ellen and landlord/City Councilman Joe Garcia head to the local Baptist Church for a final collective prayer on the eve of Election Day.

Read More >

Frank Lautenberg was fourteen years old (and John McCain was two) when Frank Salvato was first elected to the Warren Township Committee in 1938 -- during Franklin Roosevelt's second term. Now the 93-year-old Republican is seeking re-election to his 14th term. Salvato has served several terms as Mayor (the first time in 1939), and also served nine terms on the local school board. His running mate is the relatively young Malcolm Plager, 71, who's served on and off since 1992. Why does this "career politician" (he still raises cattle on the farm he was born on) want to serve another term? “I want to be re-elected because I want to finish what I started," Salvato told the Echoes Sentinel last month.

Read More >

It's election eve, which means that it's time to journey up the Ivory Tower to hear what political analysts think will happen tomorrow.

The four analysts PolitickerNJ.com talked to today were unanimous in predicting a big win for Barack Obama over John McCain both nationally and in New Jersey, and were nearly certain that incumbent U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) would easily beat down the challenge by former Rep. Dick Zimmer.   

They were also unanimous in picking state Sen. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) over Republican Medford Mayor Chris Myers in the 3rd Congressional District.

Three out of four predicated that U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-Wantage) would beat challenger Dennis Shulman in the 5th District, but by a narrow margin.  

Three out of four also felt that Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) had the edge in her race against state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Flemington) in the 7th Congressional District, while one gave Lance a narrow victory. Read More >

A new Rasmussen Reports poll has Barack Obama leading John McCain by a 57%-42% margin in New Jersey, with a 17-point lead among undecided voters.

Read More >

Democrats Barack Obama and Frank Lautenberg have huge leads going into Election Day, according to a new Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll released early this morning.  Obama leads Republican John McCain in New Jersey by 21 points, 55%-34%, amog likely voters.  In the race for U.S. Senate, incumbent Frank Lautenberg leads Republican Dick Zimmer, a former Congressman, by 19 points, 50%-31%.  

Offering a possible explanation for the increase in no opinion about the two candidates, Patrick Murray, the dirdctor of the Monmouth University Polling Institute said, “It may be that some voters simply realized that the election is next week and they still haven’t heard much, if anything, from their senate candidates.  Even with that, Lautenberg has a commanding lead.  To borrow from an old saying about Frank Sinatra, it’s Obama’s world this year and Frank Lautenberg is lucky to live in it.”

Read More >

JERSEY CITY – At an Obama rally here in the student center of New Jersey State University, New York Gov. David Paterson took aim at Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) repeated denunciation of Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) economic policy.

McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, refer in their down-the-stretch stump speeches to remarks made by a campaign supporter who told Obama that the Democratic nominee’s tax cuts sound like socialism.

Paterson put that on McCain’s home turf.

Read More >

A poll released yesterday shows Barack Obama leading John McCain by 10 points in New Jersey -- five points closer than the same pollster previously found.

The SurveyUSA poll of 800 New Jerseyans, released yesterday, puts Obama at 52% to McCain’s 42%. That’s identical to a SurveyUSA poll from a month ago, but less of a gap than one released two weeks ago.

Read More >

The 3rd district congressional race between Democrat John Adler and Republican Christopher Myers is a statistical dead heat, according to a Zogby International poll conducted by The Press of Atlantic City and The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.  More than 16% of the voters poll remain undecided, with each candidate at 39%.   Adler, a State Senator from Camden County, and Myers, the Mayor of Medford, are seeking the seat of Republican Jim Saxton, who is retiring after 24 years in the House.  Republicans have held this seat since 1884.

Third district voters are also split on races for President and U.S. Senate: Barack Obama, 45%, John McCain, 44%; and Dick Zimmer, 45%, Frank Lautenberg 44%.

Read More >

Yet another poll gives Barack Obama a huge lead over John McCain in New Jersey.

In a Fairleigh Dickinson University Public Mind poll released today, Obama leads McCain by eighteen points – 53% to 35%.  That’s five points higher than the last FDU poll, in which Obama led by 13%. 

The survey shows 80% of voters under 30 planning to cast their ballots for Obama, along with 85% of former Hillary Clinton supporters. 

“From the beginning, the McCain campaign hoped to use disgruntled Clinton supporters to their advantage. If McCain’s strategy in picking Governor Palin for his running mate was to win over former Clinton supporters, Garden State women are clearly not impressed,” said pollster Dan Cassino.

Read More >

Wall Township Mayor John Devlin would just as soon not have to brave the wildcard impact of a national race.

A Democrat in a Republican town – the first Democratic mayor, in fact, in town history, he says voters know him locally as a nonpartisan elected official.

Although he prefers to run in non-presidential election years, his record is 1-1.

“I won when I ran in 2000, the year Bush beat Gore,” says the mayor. “Then I lost in the 2004 election, when Bush beat Kerry. That was a large turnout election. The Republican community came out in droves."

Read More >