June 7, 2005 As Primary Closes In, Hopefuls for Governor Criss-Cross New Jersey to Woo Voters
By David Kocieniewski
NEW YORK TIMES
MORRISTOWN, N.J., June 6 - In diners and shopping centers, train stations and homes for the aged, the candidates for governor of New Jersey fanned out across the state Monday, making their final appeals before voters cast their ballots in the primary on Tuesday.
On the Democratic side, Senator Jon S. Corzine, who faces only nominal opposition from two candidates in the primary, treated the day as a final tune-up before launching into the general election campaign as he greeted commuters outside a train station in Westfield in the morning, then attended a few house parties held by supporters in the evening.
In the race for the Republican nomination, however, the seven contenders kept a far more frenetic pace as their campaigns sprinted toward the finish line.
As it has throughout the campaign, the issue of property taxes dominated the final day, and Bret D. Schundler, one of the two leading Republican candidates, appeared at four property tax rallies throughout the day. Addressing a group of 30 people who braved heavy rains to attend a rally here Monday afternoon, Mr. Schundler said he was encouraged by a Quinnipiac University poll released earlier in the day showing that the 11-point lead that Douglas R. Forrester held in the same poll last week had been whittled to 2 points.
"The reason for that is that people are beginning to focus on what this race is all about," Mr. Schundler said, a microphone in one hand and an umbrella in the other. As the rain continued to pour, he thanked the crowd for its determination.
"You are definitely die-hard fans, folks," Mr. Schundler said.
Mr. Forrester's campaign strategists said that they, too, were buoyed by the enthusiasm of their volunteers. As the candidate made his way through a busy schedule of stops at diners, centers for the elderly and commuter stations, his strategists geared up their get-out-the-vote apparatus in an attempt to counter Mr. Schundler's vaunted grassroots network. More than 200 Forrester volunteers worked the phones at seven call centers, urging his supporters to make it to the polls Tuesday, said Sherry Sylvester, his spokeswoman. And 500 volunteers were walking door to door, trying to speak to targeted potential Republican primary voters, she said.
"We're knocking on 80,000 doors," she said. "And once the polls open, our callers become drivers and make sure that all Doug's supporters will get to the polls to cast those ballots."
The other candidates also made last-day sprints.
Morris County Freeholder John J. Murphy greeted voters at ferry terminals, hoping to build on the surge he has shown in polls during the past two weeks. Robert Schroeder attended a rally in Ocean County, then spoke to groups of voters at centers for the elderly in Burlington, Hunterdon and Atlantic Counties, said his campaign manager, Brock McCleary. Todd Caliguire, whom many Republicans credited with a strong performance in the campaign's debate on Sunday, met with various groups near his base in Bergen County.
Steve Lonegan, mayor of Bogota, appeared on five different radio programs. Mr. Lonegan, an outspoken opponent of abortion rights and gun control, has spent much of his campaign appealing to conservative groups, and ended the day back in Bogota meeting with a small group of donors and supporters.
"It's not as if we had one last rally with 20 people the night before the election, it would make a difference," he said.
Among local races, the most closely watched contest is in Atlantic City, where Bob Levy, the former chief of lifeguards, is challenging Mayor Lorenzo Langford for the Democratic nomination. Mr. Langford's campaign has been rattled by revelations that as mayor, he awarded himself an $850,000 settlement for a lawsuit he had filed against the city several years ago when it eliminated his $30,000 per year job in the school district. The mayor, meanwhile, has accused Mr. Levy's campaign of voter fraud, saying that it had offered flowers and turkey dinners to voters to win support. On Monday, a judge turned down Mr. Langford's request that the 1,700 absentee ballots submitted by Mr. Levy's campaign be impounded.
But in New Jersey, which concentrates more power in the governor's office than virtually any other state, the focus is on determining which Republican will face Mr. Corzine in the fall.
"We've been watching these guys for too long," said Tom Shea, Mr. Corzine's campaign manager. "I cannot wait until Wednesday morning."
