{"id":40802235978,"date":"2013-07-17T12:11:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T16:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/2013\/07\/17\/new-jersey-senate-survivor\/"},"modified":"2021-01-25T11:22:05","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T16:22:05","slug":"new-jersey-senate-survivor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/2013\/07\/17\/new-jersey-senate-survivor\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey Senate Survivor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at\u00a0PolitickerNJ<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This week\u2019s Monmouth University poll<\/a>\u00a0showed Mayor Cory Booker with a daunting lead in the U.S. Senate Democratic nomination contest.\u00a0 It also found few\u00a0avenues of opportunity for his rivals to peel away that support.<\/p>\n

Can this contest become more competitive?\u00a0 Probably not by using traditional attack strategies, such as:<\/p>\n

\u201cBooker lacks the experience to be effective in Washington.\u201d\u00a0 Democratic primary voters disagree.<\/p>\n

\u201cBooker\u2019s support of policies like school vouchers shows that he\u2019s out of step with core Democratic values.\u201d\u00a0 Who says?\u00a0 Many Democratic voters themselves support vouchers.<\/p>\n

\u201cBooker is more show horse than work horse.\u201d\u00a0 He may be a celebrity, but voters believe that he brings both style and<\/i> substance to the table.<\/p>\n

There is no question that Cory Booker\u2019s national fame is key to his formidable lead in both the polls and fundraising.\u00a0 This is unusual.\u00a0 Candidates in a typical contested New Jersey primary do not start out with significant statewide name recognition.\u00a0 Each candidate tries to increase support in his or her base and garner the endorsement of power brokers from other areas of the state without a horse in the race.<\/p>\n

This contest has completely destroyed those rules of engagement.\u00a0 Booker has almost universal statewide name recognition, due solely to the fact that he has national name recognition. None of the other candidates can compete with that.<\/p>\n

It is perhaps a sad irony, then, that this happens to be one of the strongest fields of Democrats to run for statewide office in a long time.\u00a0 In addition to the two term mayor of the state\u2019s largest city, we have 24-year and 14-year congressional veterans and a 9-year state legislator who currently heads the lower chamber.<\/p>\n

The last time New Jersey saw a Democratic field this wide and deep \u2013 i.e. with at least three seasoned officeholders \u2013 was the 1989 governor\u2019s race, which featured Congressman Jim Florio (who was also the 1981 gubernatorial nominee), Princeton Mayor Barbara Boggs Sigmund (scion of a Louisiana political powerhouse), and former Assembly Speaker Alan Karcher (author of the much-read but unfortunately oft-ignored New Jersey\u2019s<\/i> Multiple Municipal Madness<\/i>).<\/p>\n

In fact, the 1970s and 1980s frequently brought out a slew of established New Jersey office-holders in closely fought contests for statewide office.\u00a0 In any other year, Frank Pallone, Rush Holt, and Sheila Oliver would be in a dogfight for this nomination.<\/p>\n

It hardly seems fair that Cory Booker can waltz away with this thing based on name recognition.\u00a0 There has to be a way to give all these candidates a decent shot at the nomination.<\/p>\n

I pondered this as I watched all four candidates huddled together at a union-sponsored press conference to highlight the foreclosure crisis.\u00a0 They were standing in front of the home of a Newark resident who has been dealing with a foreclosure nightmare.\u00a0 Each of the candidates took their turn at the microphone to condemn the situation and point out that more needs to be done.\u00a0 But there was very little in their rhetoric that differentiated how each candidate would tackle the matter as New Jersey\u2019s next U.S. Senator.<\/p>\n

Then it hit me.\u00a0 Rather than decide this nomination based on what each candidate promises to do, let\u2019s see them in action in a head-to-head set of tasks.\u00a0 We can call it New Jersey Senate Survivor<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Task 1: Foreclosure Fever<\/i>.\u00a0 Each candidate is assigned a distressed homeowner currently in foreclosure proceedings.\u00a0 Candidates must get the bank off the homeowner\u2019s back and set up a revised mortgage repayment plan.\u00a0 Whoever gets the best terms for their homeowner wins.<\/p>\n

Task 2: Obamacare-O-Rama.\u00a0<\/i> This one is simple.\u00a0 The winner is the candidate who gets the most uninsured New Jerseyans to sign up for the Health Insurance Exchange Pool.<\/p>\n

Task 3:\u00a0 Raise the Roof.\u00a0<\/i> Recognizing the singular impact of Superstorm Sandy on New Jersey, candidates must cobble together enough federal, state and insurance funding to elevate 10 homes at least 4 feet above flood stage in newly-designated FEMA V-zones.<\/p>\n

We can even award extra points to candidates who pitch in on the physical labor of raising those homes.\u00a0 You may think this gives Booker an edge \u2013 with the leaping of tall buildings in a single bound and all that.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t be so sure.<\/p>\n

If you have ever seen Frank Pallone glad-handing constituents in 90 degree heat without breaking a sweat, you\u2019d know he has the stamina of an ox.\u00a0 Rush Holt can be counted on to devise some practical application of quantum mechanics to raise the homes with the most efficient expenditure of energy.\u00a0 And since Sheila Oliver was able to declare her candidacy without being torpedoed by Joe DiVincenzo, you shouldn\u2019t underestimate her grit and resolve.<\/p>\n

The winner of these tasks earns the Democratic nomination.\u00a0 For one, this ensures that the nominee is a proven problem-solver.\u00a0 Perhaps more importantly, a significant number of Garden State residents who the candidates say they want to help once in office will be able to get that help even before the election.<\/p>\n

If this proposal isn\u2019t a \u201cwin-win,\u201d I don\u2019t know what is!<\/p>\n

***********************<\/p>\n

A note on Alan Rosenthal<\/strong>.\u00a0 I was saddened to hear of the passing of Alan Rosenthal.\u00a0 While he was never my professor, I certainly learned a lot from him during my days at Rutgers\u2019 Eagleton Institute of Politics.\u00a0 I was honored to be asked to work with him, in a very small way, on the research for one of his state legislature books, Heavy Lifting<\/i>. \u00a0Although we later disagreed, albeit amicably, about the 2011 redistricting map, I always knew that his decision was based on a clear set of principles about the efficient operation of state legislatures.\u00a0 The thing I will remember most about Alan, though, is that he was simply a fun guy to be around.\u00a0 He will be missed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at\u00a0PolitickerNJ This week\u2019s Monmouth University poll\u00a0showed Mayor Cory Booker with a daunting lead in the U.S. Senate Democratic nomination contest.\u00a0 It also found few\u00a0avenues of opportunity for his rivals to peel away that support. Can this contest become more competitive?\u00a0 Probably not by using traditional attack strategies, such as: \u201cBooker lacks the experience to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":939,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40802235978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802235978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/939"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40802235978"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802235978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40802244171,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802235978\/revisions\/40802244171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40802235978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40802235978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40802235978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}