Abraham Lincoln

The outcome of the 2009 campaign for Governor of New Jersey is not historically significant to Barack Obama's presidency. It is almost twice as likely that New Jerseyans elect a governor who is not a member of the president's party.  Indeed, the party of the incumbent president is 15-26 in New Jersey gubernatorial races since a Democrat won in Abraham Lincoln's mid-term election.

The last five gubernatorial elections went that way: Republicans lost in 1989 (George H.W. Bush), 2001 and 2005 (George W. Bush), and Democrats lost in 1993 and 1997 (Bill Clinton). But in the seven contests before that, the party of the sitting president went 6-1: Republicans won in 1969 (Richard Nixon), 1981, and 1985 (Ronald Reagan), and Democrats won in 1961 (John Kennedy), 1965 (Lyndon Johnson), and 1977 (Jimmy Carter); Republicans lost in 1973, after the incumbent was defeated in the primary and in an election that was held under the backdrop of the Watergate scandal.

None those twelve campaigns influenced the outcomes of the next presidential campaign, either nationally or in pursuit of New Jersey's electoral votes - although the 1973 results were a harbinger of the 1974 Democratic landslide.  By 1976, New Jersey was supporting a Republican presidential candidate.

Democrats won both gubernatorial elections held during Dwight Eisenhower's presidency, and Republicans won both governors' races held while Harry Truman was president.  During the four campaigns for governor that occurred during Franklin Roosevelt's tenure in the White House, Democrats won two (1937 and 1940) and lost two (1934 and 1943).  Eisenhower carried New Jersey twice, and Roosevelt won the state four times.

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.

A statue of President Lincoln at the Essex County courthouse in Newark. Lincoln lost New Jersey in both of his presidential campaigns, although he did carry Essex County.

Abraham Lincoln, born 200 years ago today, was never an especially strong vote getter in New Jersey.  In 1860, Democrat Stephen Douglas carried New Jersey by a 52%-48% margin.  In his bid for re-election in 1864, Lincoln lost New Jersey to General George McClellan by a 53%-47% margin.

In both elections, Lincoln carried South Jersey, along with Essex and Passaic counties.

U.S. Attorney Anthony Keasbey served from 1861 to 1886, New Jersey's longest serving federal prosecutor

When Christopher Christie leaves office on December 1, he will become the fifth longest serving United States Attorney from New Jersey.  Anthony Keasbey, who was appointed federal prosecutor by Abraham Lincoln in 1861, served for 25 years, winning reappointments from Andrew Johnson, Ulysses Grant, and Rutherford Hayes.  Joseph McIlvaine, named U.S. Attorney by Thomas Jefferson in 1804, served for nearly twenty years before resigning to become a U.S. Senator.

John F. Kennedy's U.S. Attorney, David Satz, Jr., was appointed in 1961 and left office six months into Richard Nixon's presidency in 1969.  (Satz is also New Jersey's oldest living former U.S. Attorney; he practices law with Saiber LLC in Newark; his late law partner, Samuel Saiber, was a Republican Assemblyman from Essex County.  Keasbey's predecessor, Garret Cannon spent nearly eight years as U.S. Attorney; he was named as a recess appointment by Franklin Pierce and then appointed by James Buchanan. 

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Abraham Lincoln lost New Jersey twice: in 1860, Democrat Stephen Douglas carried New Jersey by 4,523 votes -- 51%-49%; and in 1864, General George McClellan beat Lincoln by 7,301 votes, 52%-48%.  After Lincoln was re-elected, McClellan ran for Governor of New Jersey, where he served from 1878 to 1881.