GOVERNOR CORZINE
Victor in
contentious, expensive race
By AP from the Home
News Tribune on Line, November 8, 2005
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Home News Tribune
GOVERNOR CORZINE |
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EAST BRUNSWICK -- Democratic U.S.
Sen. Jon Corzine was elected governor of New Jersey tonight, soundly beating
Republican businessman Doug Forrester in a race that set records for campaign
spending but alienated voters with its mean-spirited politicking.
With 82 percent of precincts reporting, Corzine had 53.6 percent to Forrester's
43.2 percent.
About 400 Corzine supporters gathered at a hotel to watch the returns, the mood
growing increasingly jovial through the night as the vote tallies came in.
Corzine, who learned of his win while watching the results in a hotel suite with
his mother, Nancy, and his three children, Jennifer, Joshua and Jeffrey, could
not immediately be reached for comment.
"Jon Corzine ran a campaign of ideas, and the voters embraced his plans to make
our state safer and more affordable for all of its citizens," said U.S. Rep.
Robert Menendez, D-N.J.
Forrester conceded in a speech during which he thanked his family and urged
Corzine to bring the state together after a bitterly fought campaign that
included what he termed as "those slings and arrows of outrageous politics."
"I stand ready, personally, to help him in any way that he sees fit, to carry
out what I believe is an important public task of healing New Jersey, bringing
New Jersey together, of giving New Jersey that brighter future we spoke of in
this campaign," Forrester said.
Corzine, 58, a former chairman of investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, reached
into his own deep pockets to finance the campaign -- as did Forrester.
Together, they spent more than $70 million on the campaign, much of it to
finance television and radio commercials attacking one another.
"I'm sick of it," said voter Judy Hathcock, of South Amboy. "I don't care
whose wife said what about whom. I want to know what they are going to do
for us."
Corzine's support was strongest among women, Hispanics, blacks and independent
voters, according to a voter survey conducted today by AP-Ipsos.
Those who cited property taxes as the most important issue favored Forrester,
and he scored even more strongly among those who said corruption was a factor in
their vote.
Corzine voters said the economy and jobs were most important to them.
New Jersey's property taxes are the highest in the nation, but that and other
issues were overshadowed late in the race by all the mudslinging, which drew the
candidates' family lives into the fray.
Corzine, who won a U.S. Senate seat five years ago, was criticized by his
ex-wife in interviews last week in which she said he probably would let New
Jersey down the same way he let his family down.
Forrester used Joanne Corzine's comments in a television commercial. But
he, too, found himself on the defensive, forced to deny a tabloid gossip column
item alleging he'd had a relationship with a campaign aide.
All the negativity had voters relieved Election Day had finally arrived.
"We all think the politics that we've been seeing on television is pretty
disgusting. So, I'm glad it's voting day so we don't have to see it
anymore," said Marianne Nelson, 58, a registered nurse who voted for Corzine.
The race was one of two gubernatorial elections in the nation today; the other
was in Virginia, where Democratic Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine soundly defeated Republican
Jerry Kilgore.
The winner in New Jersey succeeds acting Gov. Richard J. Codey, a Democrat who
took office last November after the resignation of James E. McGreevey in the
wake of a gay extramarital affair. Codey chose not to run and instead
threw his support to Corzine, who will now choose the state's new senator.
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