My #1 Rule for a Candidate for Lieutenant Governor

by: southernbluedog

Mon Apr 06, 2009 at 08:22:28 PM EDT

As we all (hopefully) should know by now, New Jersey will be electing a Lieutenant Governor for the first time.  There is a lot of commotion about who will be Gov. Corzine's LG candidate.  Watson-Coleman, Buono, and Sweeney have all been mentioned as possible candidates.  All would be great candidates and LG's once they are elected.  I personally prefer a female to be the first LG.

No matter who is chosen to be the LG candidate, I just have one requirement: don't be distracting.  Yes, you are an asset to the ticket.  Yes, you are going to play a big role in the campaign and make lots of speeches.  Yes, you will be scrutinized and prodded by the media.  But please, don't be distracting.  As much as you may disagree, you are playing second fiddle to Governor Corzine.

You should be a solid, all-around candidate who knows how to rally the troops.  Make sure the skeletons in your closet are taken care of (aka, make sure your taxes are paid unlike a lot of Obama nominees).   The campaign needs to be about Corzine's policies and Christie's shortcomings.

The recent presidential campaigns wrote the textbook on this pet peeve of mine, in my opinion.  

Remember what happened to the McCain campaign?  Sen. McCain chose Gov. Palin to be his running mate.  As much as I admired him choosing a female as his running mate, she was the wrong choice.  Forget the fact she is a Republican for a minute.  I'd love to see the ratio of stories written about Palin's family, clothes, moose hunting expeditions compared to stories about McCain.  Heck, I think I read more "Joe the Plumber" stories than McCain stories.  McCain should have been the one being made fun of on SNL on a regular basis, not Palin (going off the theory of bad news is good news).  The campaign shifted from McCain to Palin, and I think that was a mistake.

I was actually happy Obama did not choose Clinton to be his running mate.  Had Clinton been the running mate, the campaign would have been all about her.  Clinton's fame and popularity would have overshadowed, or at least competed with, Obama's fame and popularity.  The media coverage would have been a huge debate over who should have been on top of the ticket, rather than over Obama's policies.  (That debate was a reoccuring theme throughout the general election, but not as strong as it would have been if Clinton was on the same ticket).  That being said, I hope Clinton runs for President in 2016 (if my math is right).

Like I said earlier, the campaign should be about Corzine's policies and Christie's shortcomings.  You'll get your 15+ minutes of fame.  Just don't take away from what the campaign should be about.  The campaign will be all about you when you run for Governor.