New Jersey's Governor's race is tightening
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
By: Tom MacDonald
tmacdonald@whyy.org
The New Jersey's Governor's race is tightening by the minute.
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The survey by Rutgers' Eagleton Institute of Politics finds 39% support incumbent Governor Jon Corzine, 36% Republican Challenger Chris Christie and 20% for Independent Chris Dagett. David Redlawsk is Director of the Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers. He says the poll is a statistical tie between the top two candidates, but doesn't expect Dagett to pull off an upset.
Redlawsk: One, he's hard to find on the ballot in a lot of counties. Two, some number of voters who typically tell pollsters why say they are going to vote third party once they get in the voting booth, they often have second thoughts.
Campaign spending has been dramatically different in what has been a negative campaign so far. Corzine has spent about $17 million dollars, most of it from his own pocket, while Christie, who is accepting public campaign funds, has spent about $10 million. Dagett's spending, also bolstered by public funding, is about a million dollars.