Pete Dawkins

As the campaign for governor intensifies, both Governor Corzine and Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie have begun throwing some not-so-subtle personal jabs.

The latest example is a television ad Governor Corzine released yesterday.  More than a few observers and bloggers noticed the double entendre – whether intentional or not --when the voiceover says that Christie “threw his weight around” as U.S. Attorney to avoid traffic tickets and points on his license.  

Corzine spokesman Sean Darcy indicated today that the campaign did not intend for the comment to be taken literally.   But state Sen. Bill Baroni, who grew up overweight and lost 130 pounds 15 years ago, said that he “immediately” recognized a reference to Christie’s girth in the Corzine ad.

“Tens of thousands of New Jerseyans like me battle weight,” he said.   “To make reference to that in such a blatant way to distract from a discussion about the issues? We’re better than that.”

Corzine also got personal by launching a web ad accusing Christie of doing a favor for a fellow former U.S. Attorney who declined to prosecute his brother.  

But it has cut both ways.  Throughout the campaign, Christie has focused on portraying Corzine – who grew up in rural Illinois and moved to New Jersey in 1975 -- as not just out-of-touch, but out-of-town.  His campaign released a Web ad replaying a Corzine statement about the “Garden State Expressway”, which does not exist. 

With a 22-point lead in his bid for re-election, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this morning, Frank Lautenberg is likely to break two new records -- he'll become the first five-term United States Senator in New Jersey history, and he'll break his own record as the oldest person to ever win a statewide election in this state.  But there is one more record that Lautenberg could break -- the biggest winning percentage in a U.S. Senate race. That record belongs to Bill Bradley, who won 64.2% against Mary Mochary in 1984.  

Lautenberg could become the fifth Senator in state history to win more than 60% of the vote; if this is the last campaign for the 84-year-old Democrat, it's not a bad way to go out -- especially since Lautenberg has never passed the 54% mark before.  He won 50.9% against Millicent Fenwick in 1982, 53.5% against Peter Dawkins in 1988, 50.3% against Chuck Haytaian in 1994, and 53.9% against Douglas Forrester in 2002.

There seems to be a general consensus among political insiders as to who won the Democratic U.S. Senate debate: Steve DeMicco.  Frank Lautenberg was less than impressive – not even close to his performance in previous debates against Millicent Fenwick, Pete Dawkins, Chuck Haytaian and Doug Forrester – but the debate was at 8PM on a Friday night, so it didn’t really matter.  That’s why DeMicco, Lautenberg’s consultant, was the winner – his campaign took quite a few hits for not engaging Rob Andrews in network TV debates, but it appears that was the right call.