Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Where Does The Corzine Campaign Go From Here?

Election day is still more than three months away, yet it feels like the gubernatorial race is over.

Corzine got no bump from the Obama visit. On the contrary, he lost 4 points in the polls and CQ Politics now rates the race as "leans Republican." The news from Bada Sting will dominate the rest of the summer and fall. So far, Corzine's attempts to smear Chris Christie over the Deferred Prosecution Agreements seems to be failing.

Corzine seems to have lost his bond trader's knack for cutting his losses.

Despite all the bad news and Democratic power brokers trying to get him to bow out, Corzine appears to be out to prove his critics and the polls wrong. As Steve Kornacki wrote the in NY Observer yesterday, "It looks like the New Jersey Democrats are finally going down. And Mr. Corzine is determined to lead the way." "The truth is that, barring some miraculously bad development for the Christie campaign, Mr. Corzine is doomed."

Christie has been saying all along that the Corzine campaign will get negative and dirty, because they have nothing else to run on. The DFP issue is bogus and not getting any traction. Tying Christie to Bush isn't working, and as Obama's approval numbers continue to decline, negative linking Christie to Bush will not hurt Christie any more than the attempt to link Corzine to Obama has helped the governor.

How desperate and embarrassing are those Obama-Corzine lawn signs? If I was Obama, I would tell Corzine to take my name off the next batch of signs.

In trying to figure out what Corzine might do to salvage his candidacy, I went back a re-read Craig Horowitz's July 2005 article for New York Magazine, The Deal He Made. The article is a mini-biography of Corzine. It covers his career in banking, his marriage, his getting the boot from Goldman Sachs, and his political career through the publication date. It is a long, but worthwhile read.

2 comments:

stopthesocialists said...

This is more than just a Corzine problem - this is a Democrat problem. Realistically, all of the Democrats that aren't in jail have ties to the ones that are. That's why Corzine had to pick Loretta "Mammy Yokum" Weinberg. What's more, when Joe Vas gets done singing and more Democrats are arrested, no Democrat with any brains will even want to advertise their party affiliation, no less hitch their wagon to this dying horse.

Anonymous said...

well, they call in Acorn, spend 20-30 mil of his $$, and give a few hundred mil of our money they don't have,to a few other core constituencies, it can still be done,should he refuse to go and the czars and ambassadorships are all filled with the Obamanation.. (which is why I again BEG the Christie camp to be doing the opposition research NOW on any possible replacements, just in case Bozo's portfolio's a bit off, in this current downturn!!)