The Garden State (cont'd)

In this post, I mentioned the Republican primary for governor of New Jersey, which will be held day after tomorrow.

The two main Republican candidates are:

Christopher J. Christie, 46, who was U.S. attorney for New Jersey from 2002 to 2008. In that role, Christie had overseen high-profile prosecutions of some of the state's elected officials.

Steve Lonegan, 53, who was mayor of Bogota, New Jersey, from 1995 to 2007. Lonegan finished fourth in the Republican primary for governor, four years ago.

Christie leads in the polls, with most of those polls showing him ahead of Lonegan by ten or more percentage points.

The media are portraying this as a right vs. left race, with Lonegan on the right. But Christie opposes abortion and same-sex marriage, and favors tax cuts and school choice. I suspect that the supposed ideological difference is one more of style than of substance.

Whoever wins the Republican primary, things are not looking good for Democratic Governor Jon Corzine, who is expected to easily win his party's primary.

Corzine, 62, was CEO of Goldman Sachs, which was then an investment bank, from 1994 to 1999. He represented New Jersey in the U.S. Senate from 2001 to 2006. Corzine was elected governor in 2005.

Polls regarding the general election show Corzine trailing Christie by a significant margin, and running a close race against Lonegan. The Republican Party, desperately in search of momentum, sees an opportunity in the Garden State.