While a new Quinnipiac University poll claims that Corzine’s lead is widening to 50-43 (from 48-44 on 9/28), it’s really just confirming the 6-8 point race that other polls have been pointing to for a while. Corzine’s lead among independents is 50 – 38. Both candidates have seen their favorability ratings fall due to the constant stream of negative ads.

Also, the poll finds that Democrats are seen as more corrupt:

By a 50 – 22 percent margin, voters associate the Democratic Party with corruption, rather than the Republican Party.

There’s corruption in the state. Democrats are in power. Those who don’t act deserve the blame for not doing everything to end the corruption. Unfortunately for the good Democrats, most voters aren’t so discriminating – they won’t check each politician’s voting record. We’re still waiting for a complete ban on pay-to-play at all levels. What are they waiting for? Until they do everything in their power (and they are in power) to end the corruption, they are part of the problem, not the solution.

“We ought to ban it from the schoolhouse right to the governor’s chair,” Corzine said in the debate last night. Why hasn’t Governor Codey taken the same position to ban ALL pay-to-play?

The 3rd gubernatorial debate will be held at TCNJ at 7PM. It will be broadcast live on WABC-TV and WPVI-TV in New York and Philadelphia, respectively as well as Univision. It will also be on the radio stations 87.7 FM, WABC-AM, WTSR-FM.

Questions for the participants will come from TCNJ students and reporters. The candidates will also get to question one another.

Joining Corzine and Forrester tonight: Libertarian Party candidate, Jeffrey Pawlowski, and by Hector Castillo, of the Education Not Corruption Party.

UPDATE: Video of the debate is now online.

Rush Holt is commenting on the debate over at the Corzine Connection:

A mistake?
When asked to cite a mistake, Doug Forrester refers to his time as mayor for two years in the 1980s (the only office he’s ever held) not to talk about the tax increases he levied, or the suburban sprawl that his successors have spent twenty years trying to get under control.  Instead, he tried to make it an issue of family values.

Philadelphia Inquirer (10/17):
Forrester contracts tied to entities that aided his candidacy

Associated Press (10/17-18):
Forrester business contracts tied to GOP party politics (2), (3), (4)

Associated Press (10/18):
Forrester defends his business ties to GOP officials

Star Ledger (10/18):
Democrats repeat pay-to-play charge

The Press (10/18):
Forrester accused of pay-to-play deal involving Gormley’s son

Courier Post (10/18):
Burlco Democrats tout GOP pay-to-play

The Record (10/18):
Pension woes worry candidates (end of article)

Care to explain, Doug?

For those of you who are on various email lists as am I, perhaps you have gotten an email asking for your vote as to wether or not Jon Corzine deserves a MoveOn.org endorsement.

I like MoveOn and am baffled by them even asking us the people if we want them to endorse him.

Senator Corzine’s record speaks for itself.

So why don’t we all take a little time and click on over to the MoveOn poll and say YES! Endorse Jon Corzine.

Loudly, proudly, and next time DON’T EVEN ASK!

Can you confirm or deny this? (from The Inside Edge):

Update: I called the BCDO and they wouldn’t say anything. The person I spoke with gave me the number to Victory 2005. Still no denial or confirmation.

Update 2: In response to an email inquiry, Erin Corcoran, coordinator of the Bergen County Democratic Organization, says that the rumor “is not true at all”.

Update 3: Three sources confirm that Wally Edge’s report is not true. One source was in the BCDO HQ and said that volunteers were making calls that mentioned Jon Corzine.

Taking a dive in Bergen?

Insiders are wondering whether Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero will seek a measure of revenge on Jon Corzine by keeping his army of field workers on the sidelines between now and Election Day. Corzine, of course, hurt Ferriero dearly by backing Loretta Weinberg’s successful bid to replace Byron Baer in the state Senate. A Bergen source now reports that Democratic volunteers in Bergen are being instructed to make phone calls only on behalf of the two Democtratic candidates for freeholder, incumbents David Ganz and Bernadette McPherson. Corzine’s name has apparently been cut from the script. A Bergen loss is a tough pill to swallow for any statewide candidate. It’s the state’s biggest county and has backed every statewide winner, with one exception– Corzine in ’00, who lost Bergen by 5,000 votes. But there’s a potential risk for Ferriero as well. If a poor Corzine showing topples Ganz and McPherson, the Democratic freeholder majority will shrink from 6-1 to 4-3. And that would position Democrat Valerie Vanieri Huttle, who will finish out the last year of her freeholder term even as prepares to enter the state Assembly, to side with the Republicans on votes crucial to Ferriero, in effect stripping the chairman of control of the board.

Ive recently turned my political attention to the local level and I am quite dismayed with the blatant cronyism apparent therein.  What I find most disturbing is that this is under a Democratic administration.

I live in Rutherford in Bergen County.  Our mayor, also a freeholder, and members of her council, have been known to garner jobs/appointments for family and friends.  For example, during the tenure of one such council member, his brother-in-law landed a job in the police force and his sister as a school nurse.  There are also rumors of an illicit affair involving the mayor, but that is hearsay.  

Some citizens of the town tired of the environment and switched party affiliation to run as Repubs.

Is that the best way to deal with cronyism on the local level?  I have been interested in running in town though I would rather not run on a party ticket with any affiliation to Forrester and Dubya.  Additionally, the Democrats in town are riding on the coattails of Corzine which makes it difficult to criticize one and not the other.

Basically, what is the best way to change the local party from within without indirectly benefiting the Repubs?  There is the Green party, but nobody seems to take them seriously.

Wikipedia lists the absence of democracy, or so-called illiberal democracy, as a condition that is favorable to the development of political corruption.  Can we make a case that New Jersey is an illiberal democracy?  Let me count the ways.

Technically speaking, an illiberal democracy could be any democracy that is not a liberal democracy. However, the term is almost always used to denote a particularly authoritarian kind of representative democracy, in which the leaders and lawmakers are elected by the people, but tend to be corrupt and often do not respect the law.

Well, New Jersey does have elections, so the people do, indeed, elect the leaders and lawmakers.  Well, at least we elect a Governor that gets to appoint a whole lot of leaders.  So we have the first part covered.  Do our leaders “tend” to be corrupt?