For public employee unions, a vote for Bergmanson sends a message to Corzine during budget time

Gov. Jon Corzine faces just token opposition in the Democratic primary, although some pundits are watching to see if a significant number of Democrats - perhaps more than twenty percent of them - vote against him anyway.  In what is more of a race for second place, three other Democrats are running for Governor: Carl Bergmanson, a former Mayor of Glen Ridge; Roger Bacon, a factory worker who runs a customized ceramic mug business; and Jeff Boss, who claims to have witnessed the U.S. government planning the 9/11 terrorist attack. 

There are reports that some public employee unions are, very quietly, suggesting that their members vote for Bergmanson.  Their hope is that the vote totals of today's primary could influence Corzine over the next 28 days. 

The underperformance in a primary does not necessarily reflect a general election problem. James Walter Ralph, a Bergen County physician with no base, no organization, and no money, ran as a conservative in the 1972 Republican U.S. Senate primary and held three-term incumbent Clifford Case to 75% of the vote.  But Case went on to win 63% in the general election, defeating former U.S. Rep. Paul Krebs (D-Livingston) by 780,281 votes.  Case was an Arlen Specter kind of Senator who likely would have won re-election on the ticket of either major party.

Two years earlier, U.S. Sen. Harrison Williams beat State Sen. Frank Guarini (D-Jersey City) 66%-34% in the Democratic primary.  In the general election, he defeated GOP State Chairman Nelson Gross by twelve percentage points, 54%-42%.

In 1949, Gov. Alfred Driscoll was held to 71% in the Republican primary against Somerset County Freeholder Director Robert Adams.  In the general election, he became the first New Jersey Governor to win a second consecutive term when he defeated former U.S. Rep. Elmer Wene (D-Vineland) by a 52%-47% margin.

The best political comeback in New Jersey history was Gov. Brendan Byrne's 1977 re-election campaign.  Byrne, with upside-down approval ratings, won the Democratic primary with 30% in a twelve-candidate field, and then beat Republican State Sen. Raymond Bateman (R-Branchburg) 56%-42%.