Posted on 11/28/2004 5:17:33 PM PST by nj26
On paper, it looked like a winning formula.
Determined to avoid mistakes that buried them in recent elections, New Jersey Republicans would rally behind a candidate who could win the independent swing voters needed to reclaim the governor's office in 2005.
Above all, that candidate would be a crime-busting prosecutor whose zeal for putting politicians away would appeal to a scandal-weary electorate. It seemed just what the beleaguered Republicans needed: a law-and-order nominee running against a Democratic Party whose governor had resigned in disgrace.
But the GOP plan to ride U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie back to power in Trenton never got off the ground, and Christie decided last week not to risk the security and status of his job for a dicey statewide campaign.
"We were close, but we couldn't put enough together to give Chris the confidence to do it," said William Palatucci, Christie's friend and chief surrogate in the attempt to move the party machinery behind him.
Palatucci, finance chairman of the state GOP, called it "a missed opportunity for the party to put a law-and-order candidate" in the governor's race. "He was the right candidate at the right time."
Former acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco agreed that Christie "would have been the party's most electable candidate. The issue Republicans need to rally around is the culture of corruption, and he was perfectly positioned to do that."
While several key Republicans pledged to support Christie, Palatucci was unable to deliver enough of the major county leaders whose organizations would be crucial in winning the June primary.
Many of those officials suggested that they would be with Christie once he entered the race - as he privately signaled he would - but they refused to guarantee it. The Christie faction also was unable to coax any of the other candidates to drop out, making his road to the nomination a treacherous one.
At the same time, President Bush's reelection made Christie's job as the chief federal prosecutor in New Jersey safe for another four years. He would have had to resign to run for governor.
As DiFrancesco put it: "[Christie] had a lot to lose by leaving that office. It was just too much of a risk for him and his future."
The apparent beneficiary of Christie's move is Douglas Forrester, a multimillionaire businessman from Mercer County who now is considered the main rival to Bret Schundler, the former Jersey City mayor and unsuccessful GOP gubernatorial candidate in 2001.
DiFrancesco and others said the GOP's regional powers were shortsighted in refusing to make the commitments needed to bring Christie into the race.
"They should have been bolder," he said. "Where I go, people continually ask what we have to do to win a general election. All these county chairmen have been asking that question for a couple of years now and none of them have an answer."
Privately, some veteran Republicans expressed disgust at the collapse of the Christie effort and were harsh in their assessment of some who failed to support it.
They said some party figures were compromised by business interests and parochial political concerns. Others cited a leadership void in the state party.
The Republicans have experienced a political meltdown in recent years, losing the 2001 governor's race and surrendering control of the legislature. The GOP also lost both the 2000 and 2002 U.S. Senate elections.
While their Democratic counterparts have displayed remarkable party discipline in coalescing behind their strongest candidates, the Republicans remain mired in disarray.
The Democrats face their own problems in next year's election, due chiefly to the swirl of scandals that plagued James E. McGreevey, who resigned as governor last month.
From the start, Christie's efforts were constrained by laws barring prosecutors from actively engaging in politics. He could not even say whether he was running.
While Christie was required to stay above the fray, he used two key surrogates to deliver that message for him: Palatucci, his former law partner, and George Gilmore, the GOP chairman in Ocean County and head of the state's 21 Republican county chairmen.
Palatucci and Gilmore worked to get other county leaders and key party figures in line behind Christie's candidacy but ran into unexpected resistance.
Some county officials were concerned about offending candidates already in the race, while others were reluctant to make commitments on behalf of their organizations.
Still others wanted Christie to resign and declare his candidacy first, something he was unwilling to do without definite promises of support.
Though a number of party leaders signed on, some of the most influential figures were not prepared to commit. They included Glenn Paulsen, the Burlington County GOP chairman; Dale Florio, chairman in Somerset County; and state Sen. William L. Gormley, the Republican political leader in Atlantic County.
Paulsen, for one, said he wanted a chance to vet Christie before making a decision.
"I don't think party leaders or county chairs were in a position to endorse anyone until they had an opportunity to talk to him directly - and [Christie] couldn't do that for ethical considerations," Paulsen said. "I never had the chance to review what he stood for and what his vision was."
Paulsen added that he was "responsible to a whole lot of county committee people" and thus not in a position "to take orders" from those seeking an early endorsement of Christie.
Attempts to reach Gormley and Florio were unsuccessful.
The candidate expected to benefit most from Christie's decision is Forrester, who officially declared this week and is running $1 million in ads over New York and Philadelphia TV and radio stations.
With Christie in the race, he and Forrester would have competed for, essentially, the same Republicans, trying to block Schundler from winning the nomination for a second time. They are concerned that Schundler, who lost the 2001 election, would do so again next year.
DiFrancesco said that, while he considered Christie the strongest potential nominee, "that doesn't mean we can't win the election. The McGreevey baggage might be too great for whomever the Democrats nominate."
"I disagree with your negative tone. We've got a couple of good conservative candidates."
Well, I sure hope that it isn't Schundler, after the fiasco of him being blackmailed in 2001. We would have won in 2001 if we could have exposed McGreevey at that point. But his name keeps coming up in the media.
I liked Schundler. Voted for him in the primary against Franks and again in the general. Yeah, he got beat bad, but NJers have themselves to blame. Now, not only are we post-9-11, Schundler and Forrester both have been vindicated on their message of cleaning up the corruption. Both represent outsiders. Now you throw on top of that the embarrassment of McGreevey, and we've got a chance. Corzine could be a tough competitor, but so be it. Bring it on!
Or, that's nonsense.
I liked Schundler UNTIL I read that he was blackmailed by McGreevey into not revealing McGreevey's homosexuality. (See my post above)
Blackmailed? Details please . . . I have a bit of info on the reasons behind Bret's choosing not to expose Dandy Jim, but they have more to do with politics than blackmail. That said, I have heard some rumors . . .
From Newsweek:
New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey had stayed a step ahead of the rumors for years. In down-and-dirty New Jersey politics, Republican opponents had tried to hint at his double life, sometimes none too subtly. One Republican opponent in a local election sent out a mass mailing with photographs of McGreevey's car getting late-night parking tickets in a particularly seedy area near New York City's Times Square. McGreevey was nervous about exposure. When his opponent in the 2001 governor's race, Bret Schundler, hired "oppo men" who tried to get into McGreevey's sealed divorce papers (McGreevey married for a second time and has children by both wives), McGreevey countered in classic New Jersey fashion: he sent an emissary to tell Schundler's operatives that he, too, knew some embarrassing secrets about his opponent. In a "gentleman's agreement," both sides backed off.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5709441/site/newsweek
I had some involvement with the Schundler campaign. I found it more a question of: (a) How to prove it? (b) The media painting Bret as intolerant. (c) If it didn't work, it was THE END of Bret's career.
As a former resident of the NJ waterfront, that owes it's revitalized existence in large part to Bret's tenure as mayor of Jersey City, I've always figured the "details" had to do with some of the sweetheart deals Bret cut with corporations and RE developers to get things built. But I don't really know.
I agree with most of your points on Christie's background above. But he is a fresh face.
And, with Forrester, he did a great job of running as a pro-choice RINO, and still managed to get portrayed as a right-wing extremist by Lautenberg. I'll vote for him, but I'm not optimistic.
I just can't believe that Schundler would keep quiet about McGreevey's homosexuality due to an issue like payoffs from developers in Jersey City (or something along that lines.) It has to be something bigger, or it just doesn't make logical sense. Rumors are that it was something else. In any case, he was blackmailed into silence due to his own failings, and that silence cost us an election.
As for Forrester, he got the rug pulled out from him on the old bait-and-switch. When running against Bobby T., he gave into the temptation to run as the Anti-Bob candidate. An empty vessel who could win the seat based on who he wasn't rather than as a candidate who stood for X,Y, and Z. Frankly, I would have advised him to do the same -- it was a winning strategy against somebody with Torricelli's negatives. That's why he took a rather squishy, undefined position on abortion and other social issues. When they replaced Bob with Frank (who, Lord only knows why, has a favorable reputation among the NJ electorate), Forrester suddenly became an empty suit running against a beloved figure with 100% name ID. We'll see what Doug's made of over the next 6 months.
the GOP = the "grand old pharts" ?
On the astronomical chance that he is, he's gonna have to lose the glasses and beard. We haven't had a president for ages that wore glasses and/or had a beard, seems to have gone the way of handlebar moustaches and zoot suits.
"Is he a stealth northeast liberal candidate for president?"(CORZINE).
Of course he is. Every 4 years, the 2 parties put a former or sitting senator up for their Candidate. (goldwater, Humphrey, McGovern, Mondale, Dole, Kerry). There has not been a candidate elected from the Senate since John Kennedy. and before that, (help) I don't know.
However, there is a recent history of Governors being elected. (Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush). Of course Dukakis lost, but then again, he's from Massachusetts.
So the strategy as I see it, is that Corzine runs and wins the Jersey Governorship in '05. Then in '08 he's running for President.
The down side is that Jersey loses again. Whitman didn't finish her term. McGreevey resigns in scandal, and it Corzine wins, he's gone is 3 years.
Bill
I'd heard McGreevey had evidence of a (straight) affair. But it's interesting the media can allude to this stuff but not have the guts to put it out there. It's rumor until proven.
stealth? I know we're supposed to think Kerry was the most liberal member of the Senate, but Corzine is nearly a socialist, if you look at his voting record, he's to the left of Kennedy, Hillary, just about everybody.
LOLOLOL.....that is the best description of NJ politicians I have ever heard!!!
Corzine is a very vulnerable candidate- if the GOP is smart.
I don't see it. Codey is a far easier Dem. to take on. Codey's got much lower name ID and he can be tarred with the Jersey stench of corruption because he spent his life in Trenton. Corzine is well thought of in NJ, and, disturbingly, regarded as less liberal than he actually is because of his Wall Street tenure. What would you hit Corzine on?
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