Posted on 10/05/2005 5:21:01 AM PDT by OESY
...How did Forrester turn all this fodder into his recent gains? Not with slash-and-burn attack ads, but with a pair of softer commercials that have proved a political powerhouse.
One features a series of "ordinary" voters — all of them Democrats who say they've decided, because of corruption and taxes, to vote for Forrester this time around. It's the same kind of ad Mayor Bloomberg has been airing (just as effectively) in New York.
The other commercial features Forrester's wife, Andrea, talking for 30 seconds about her husband's integrity and commitment to family values — a subtle dig both at McGreevey, who quit after disclosing his affair with a top male aide, and Corzine's financial relationship with his ex-girlfriend.
"The politicians in New Jersey have really let us down — the corruption, the deception," she says. "But Doug is going to change that. He'll be a breath of fresh air."
Most analysts credit this ad for Forrester's sudden surge. But he'll need all the help his wife can give — because the same polls that show New Jerseyans to be fed up with corruption and high taxes also disclose their cynical disbelief that anyone on the horizon can change things anytime soon.
Still, the voters do appear to be listening to Forrester — or, at least, to be having second thought about Corzine. Which is why Corzine is trying to change the subject — unsubtly charging that Forrester is "George Bush's candidate for governor" and asking ominously whether the Republican candidate is "mainstream or extreme."
Forrester is hitting back, largely abandoning the ads that got him where he is for attack spots labeling Corzine a tax-hiker.
...Corzine's plush coffers will likely let him pull it out. Still, it's nice to see him sweating for a change
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
It still galls me that the NJ media knew about McGreedy and his lovers but refused to reveal it to the voters.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Forrester ran against McGreevey in 2001. If they haven't found anything untoward about his past to this point, there isn't anything to find.
Do you guys know if Cody is going to appoint an acting senator to take Daddy Warbucks place while he campaigns or is Daddy Warbucks keeping his day job just in case he loses???
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
They did kind of step in at that point but only to say his nominee was not qualified. Actually, that he had no security clearances.
My cynical side tells me that this race isn't really as close as the media have been portraying it to be, but is being described as "tight" just to generate public interest in a campaign that will go down as one of the dullest contests in at least two generations.
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