Christie pulled out all the stops for this special election. He scheduled an actual primary election, rather than leaving the choice of candidates to the two party's leadership in smoke-filled rooms. He scheduled the special election on October 16 -- which is a Wednesday, and just a few weeks before the Governor's election on November 5th.
If any election was ever designed to favor a truly conservative candidate like Lonegan in New Jersey, it's a special election on a Wednesday a few weeks before a general election. Only the core voters of either party are likely to make it to the polls. Of course, Christie didn't do this because he wanted to help Lonegan. He did it because he didn't want to appear on the same ballot with Cory Booker.
So far the polling doesn't look too good for Lonegan.
There are some ethical/business questions with Booker that might gain some traction before the election if the media decides to go after it. We'll see how this works out. I am not optimistic.
"Christie pulled out all the stops for this special election. He scheduled an actual primary election, rather than leaving the choice of candidates to the two party's leadership in smoke-filled rooms... He did it because he didn't want to appear on the same ballot with Cory Booker.
Yep. I have a theory that the whole Christie-Obama bromance was designed to keep Booker from running for Governor, as well: In late summer of 2012, Booker irritated Obama's campaign by publicly rebuking them for slamming Romney over his ties to Bain. (After all, it was Obama's biggest campaign theme- Romney was Hitler because of Bain).
Axlerod & Co. made an offer to Christie- go over the top in making Obama look good before the presidential election (and most importantly, help him look bipartisan in order to appeal to moderates), and we'll use our power to keep Booker from running against you. Christie loved it because he's only in it for himself...