A Photo Finish or Blow-Out on Election Day?
A photo finish or blow-out on Election Day? Intrigue in 2006?
By MURRAY SABRIN
JerseyPolitics.com.com Columnist
According to all the polls, the next governor of New Jersey will be Jon Corzine. If Corzine wins the election next Tuesday by 1 percentage point or by double digits, Doug Forrester will have no one to blame but himself and his advisors for running an uninspiring campaign.
A GOP gubernatorial candidate should be calling for amending the New Jersey Constitution to eliminate the “thorough and efficient “clause about education. This act would lower property taxes in the burbs by 20% or more. Urban districts then would have to restructure their education spending to get more bang out of the buck for their schools with the funds they would have to raise locally. And if suburban taxpayers want to help fund the urban school districts with voluntary contributions that would be their pregorative. Suburban families should not be coerced to fund mediocre and failing urban schools so the urban Democratic political machines can live off the backs of middle and upper income families.
Forrester should win this race by five or more percentage points. He should win every suburban county—Bergen, Monmouth, Ocean, Morris, Sussex, Somerset and others by huge margins, offsetting Democratic votes in Hudson, Essex, Middlesex, Union, and others. Instead, Forrester may actually lose to Corzine in some traditional Republican counties, e.g., Bergen and Monmouth. We will see Tuesday evening.
Rumors are swirling about both Forrester and Corzine in the closing days of the campaign. The candidates’ integrity, marital fidelity and other character issues are making the campaign look like an out-of-control summer camp of juveniles. If the rumors about both Forrester and Corzine are true, maybe neither is fit to be governor.
H.L. Mencken got it right decades ago when he made this observation of the American political system: “Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule--and both commonly succeed, and are right.”
Another rumor making the rounds is about Jon Corzine. I will not repeat the rumor here, except to say if it’s true and it does not surface before the election, it could be used by the Democrat bosses to hold a sword over Corzine if he becomes the next governor. In other words, Corzine would have to play ball with the bosses, or he could face a political death just like McGreevey did in 2004. In short, maybe all this--the Corzine campaign and election-- is to get him out of the Senate and out of Trenton and have one of the good ole boys—Dick Codey—become governor without a costly campaign. Clever. Very clever.
Fasten your seat belts…we could be in for a bumpy ride in 2006 or 2007.
Murray Sabrin, Ph.D., is professor of finance in the School of Business, Ramapo College of New Jersey, where he is also executive director of the Center for Business and Public Policy, www.ramapo.edu/cbpp.
4 Comments:
Dr. Sabrin's piece struck a responsive chord in me.
For the first time in my voting life (started voting in November, 1973), I will not be voting for any candidate for the Office of Governor of New Jersey.
Unlike Dr. Sabrin, none of the candidates on the ballot seeking the office of governor appear to grasp the importance of the excising the education clauses from the New Jersey Constitution in radically reducing property taxes and increasing political liberty here in New Jersey.
Even the non-libertarian Libertarian Party candidate, who would have otherwise received my vote and prresumably the vote of other limited government advocates, said nothing inspiring or specific respecting the reduction of political power in the hands of Trenton.
I'll go to the polls, vote on the public questions and for one assembly candidate, go home and have a stiff one (maybe two, and wish that Dr. Sabrin had thrown his hat in the ring this year.
Amending the "thorough and efficient" clause of the New Jersey Constitution is the way to go. It is unfortunate that Murray Sabrin is not the gubernatorial candidate this year. The New Jersey Libertarian Party has the gubernatorial candidate Jeff Pawlowski calling for an increase in a gasoline tax… Those who support limited government are left without a choice in this election. I, too wish that Dr.Sabrin would have thrown his hat into the ring.
Murray for Governor, we need to bring this state back to the people and focused on our critical issues and the needs of the citizens.
Once again, Dr. Sabrin was right on the money and focused on the end result no matter how frustrating the plays are getting to the end zone. When will we sack the democratic swills and take back our state? Are we all crazy and endorse play to pay, political back room deals and the same old tales from our statehouse. The future of our state is at risk and no one seems to care. Murray, we need you to run or spend 24 hours a day helping bring some sense back to the voting population of this state.
Post a Comment
<< Home