New Jersey votes. Or doesn’t. Not really.
Election Day somewhere or other in America. Â New Jersey, as the case happens to be… where Chris Christie cleared a path for a hum-dum Special Election Primary Election to set up a hum-dum General Election for no real reason not to coincide with the already scheduled election in November.
And so here we are. Â The people. Â The people round the blocks, voices speaking out for the Vox Popolis…
The Star-Ledger has a little, yellow box in the top left-hand corner of the front page noting the election. You have to really look for the Record’s mention of the Senate race on their front — it’s right there next to “Yankees Hang On†in the bottom right hand corner of the page.
That tells you everything you need to know about the newsworthiness — or lack thereof — of today’s races.
Well, I voted today and I posted on Facebook urging others to do the same. The electoral workers at our polling place told me they were averaging 2 voters per hour. *sigh* I always vote. After all, it is my civic duty.
And the results:
Frank Pallone 19.7%
Christie allies expect the governor to offer Lonegan a formal endorsement, but don’t expect the governor to lift a finger to campaign or raise money for his party’s nominee or lend him support in his long-shot campaign against Booker in the October special election. “It doesn’t seem like that’s something he would invest in,” said one member of Christie’s inner circle. “Resources are limited.”
For their part, Lonegan’s team doesn’t seem to expect much from the state’s most popular Republican in decades. “They’re running their race and they have their issues. We’re running our race and we have our issues, and they’re just totally different,” Lonegan aide Rick Shaftan said. “Steve has to make the case for his own campaign.”
Lonegan don’t need Christie.  He’s Koch.
(1) Stuart Meissner, whose ballot label is “Alimony Reform Nowâ€, submitted 833 signatures
(2) Eugene LaVergne, whose ballot label is “D-R Partyâ€, submitted 864 signatures
(3) Pablo Olivera, whose label is “Unity is Strengthâ€, submitted 996 signatures
(4) Robert DePasquale, who has different labels in different counties, submitted 976 signatures.
New Jersey is the only state in which an independent candidate for statewide office can have different labels in different counties. In some counties DePasquale is using “No Amnesty Periodâ€; in others, “American Citizens Firstâ€; and in yet others, “Jobs for Americans.â€
If anyone challenges any of these petitions, some of them might not survive. 800 valid signatures are needed. If all of these candidates remain on the ballot, there will be eight candidates.
2 single issue figures and 2 vaguely defined non partisan entities.