Independent stirs up New Jersey Governor contest
US: An independent candidate stressing New Jersey’s economic woes is
attracting surprising voter support in the governor’s race, which
features an unpopular Democratic incumbent and a Republican challenger
with ties to former President George W. Bush.
The independent, Chris Daggett, is a former federal environmental
official who is not expected to win Tuesday’s election for governor in
New Jersey, which backed President Barack Obama in 2008, but he could
affect who does.
Daggett said at a campaign appearance this week he has found unhappy
voters across New Jersey, the nation’s most densely populated state.
“It’s a lousy economy. It’s a stimulus package that hasn’t stimulated.
It is jobs that are lost. It is homes foreclosed,” Daggett told Reuters.
“It’s all added up to this anger that is really widespread and, I think,
national in scope.”
Governor Jon Corzine, a former Goldman Sachs chief executive, is
running for a second term and only last week pulled ahead in polls
against Republican Chris Christie, a former U.S. Attorney appointed by
Bush.
In his third campaign visit to New Jersey on Corzine’s behalf, Obama
talked on Sunday about the importance of creating more jobs as the U.S.
economy begins to turn around.
He told a crowd of about 5,000 people in Camden that Corzine was “not
going to rest until not only is Wall Street doing well, but Main Street
is doing well, and businesses are hiring again.”
Jersey City, Monday, Reuters |