Tag: governor

An LG from the left

It appears that Loretta Weingberg, staunch progressive from Bergen County, will be Jon Corzine’s No. 2 on the November ballot. Weinberg’s “legislative record,” according to The Star-Ledger,

has earned her praise as a champion of women’s issues and progressive causes.

“To progressive voters all across New Jersey, Governor Corzine’s selection of Loretta Weinberg is like adding a jolt of a million volts. We are electrified,” Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality, New Jersey’s leading gay rights group, wrote to supporters. “He named a legend. It’s a selection that says volumes about his exemplary leadership and his progressive vision of our state.”

In the weeks leading up to the choice, a number of names have been bandied about, the politics of the choice appearing the major point of contention. Does the governor select a black candidate to sure up the black vote for his party? Does he pick a woman? Does he go to a county he absolutely must carry? Chris Christie, the Republican, faced far fewer of these questions — the GOP’s base being somewhat more homogeneous.

But the politics — a woman from Bergen County whose progressive credentials could solidify Corzine’s left flank — are less important than what the lieutenant governor could bring to an administration. What roles might Weinberg or Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno — Christie’s LG pick — play after the election?

I like Weinberg. She has a great track record on the issues I believe are important — health care, civil rights (including the rights of same-sex couples), ethics. She understands Trenton, but has not become entrenched — she had to withstand a challenge from her own party’s leadership to retain her seat two years ago.

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Poll positions: A GOP firm issues its own numbers

OK, so we have another poll showing us something we already know — voters in New Jersey are not happy with the governor and, at least at the moment, ready to hand the reins off to his Republican challenger.

But the poll in question — conducted by Strategic Vision — may not be the best one to hang one’s hat on, primarily because of two things:

  1. Strategic Visions has among its clients a bevy of conservative groups, including U.S. English and is run by a former campaign operative for Bob Dole’s presidential race.
  2. The other issue with the poll results can be seen in this bit of info:

    The results of the poll also showed that 50 percent of those polled approved of President Barack Obama’s overall job performance, with 40 percent disapproving; and 10 percent undecided. When asked if they approved of the President’s handling of the economy, 47 percent approved and 45 percent disapproved.

    That means that Strategic Visions has Obama at about 10-12 percentage points below what other New Jersey polls have shown, and may explain why a race that most polls have at about a 7-or-so-point gap is at 15 points in this poll.

I have one other major question: Who commissioned this poll? Strategic Vision does not appear to function as the Gallup, Monmouth or Fairleigh Dickinson polls do. They seem, from their own literature, to be client-driven. So who’s the client in this case?

This description of the polling firm from a 2006 Media Matters piece may shed some light:

Far from being “independent,” Strategic Vision is a Republican polling firm. Johnson, the company’s founder and CEO, worked on former Sen. Bob Dole’s (R-KS) 1988 presidential campaign. Johnson’s personal website — which identifies Johnson at the top as a “Republican conservative” — further notes that while working “at Associated Industries of Florida, he assisted in the development of the association’s political operations department that played a pivotal role in Republicans capturing the State Senate in 1994 and State House in 1996.” Johnson was also involved in Republican Florida governor Jeb Bush’s first gubernatorial campaign. Most media outlets identify Strategic Vision as a “Republican polling company,” such as a March 13 Philadelphia Inquirer article. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted on March 12 that Strategic Vision “has a Republican history,” and the company’s hometown paper, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, noted in a March 13 article that the “polling firm lists to the GOP side.”

No one would be foolish enough to argue that Corzine is actually leading or that the race is particularly close. But the prevalence of polling in the coverage, especially when polls like this one get the headlines, tend to create a momentum of their own, making the election results seem a forgone conclusion.

As reporters, we need to be very careful to identify those polls that are most reliable and, should we opt to use polls from places like Strategic Vision, make sure we identify who the polling firm is and take as close a look as we can at the results and how they match up with other more reliable polls.

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All I’m asking for is a little respect, just a little bit

We haven’t even gotten out of July and we’re being subjected to this kind of nonsense. The state is facing a massive deficit, has been for ears, one created in a bipartisan manner through the use of shell games and risk avoidance, and Chris Christie wants the governor to accept responsibility for everything and to resign in shame? Please.

Can we treat voters with some respect? Jon Corzine has made little headwa toward fixing the state’s fiscal disaster, but Christie has offered nothing and the voters deserve a debate over what kinds of sacrifices will need to be made — whether it means higher taxes, an unprecedented slashing of services (many of which are popular), historic government restructuring or all of the above.

Mr. Christie has a responsibility at this point to explain what he would cut, who it would affect and why he thinks we can do without. His vague talk has been designed to avoid angering voters, but that should not be his goal. If he thinks he can do a better job governing the state of New Jersey — and it is very possible that he can — he needs to explain what he would do differently than Gov. Corzine and not just talk about making tough choices.

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The LG question

Republican Chris Christie has made his choice for lieutenant governor — Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno.

It was one of those highly anticipated electoral moments, and yet I have to wonder just what the choice of an LG will mean in the 2009 governor’s race.

Remember, this is the first time voters will see a running mate on a gubernatorial ticket and, while there are those who expect the LG slot to have an impact similar to the choice of a vice presidential running mate, I just don’t know if that is true.

There is no history of that here and it is unclear how the LG post plays in other states.

In the case of Guadagno and Christie, she comes from a county that is a Republican stronghold, but is not a household name in the state. She does vary the ticket some demographically, but not as much as she could have — the GOP is running two candidates from Republican counties who both are prosecutors with little experience beyond that.

There are rumors that Jon Corzine will pick a former “Apprentice” winner as his running mate — an African American from Franklin who has roots in East Windsor. Randal Pinkett

is a Rutgers University graduate and Rhodes Scholar, according to his Web site, randalpinkett.com. The Franklin Township, Somerset County, resident is described on the site as an “entrepreneur, speaker, author, scholar and community servant.”

Will he help? There are some who think he will aid with turnout among minority voters, though one has to wonder if his TV ties will play well.

Then again, this election, ultimately, will boil down to a referendum on Corzine and whether people think Christie can do a better job under difficult circumstances.

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