NJ holds gov primaries under shadow of unpopular Christie

PRINCETON, New Jersey: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is barred by state law from running for a third consecutive four-year term this year, but the unpopular former Republican presidential candidate remains a central figure in the campaign to replace him. Voters head to the polls today to choose Republican and Democratic nominees to succeed Christie, whose approval ratings have hit historic lows. He has been accused of spending too much time out of state during the 2016 presidential campaign and tarnished by the socalled Bridgegate lane closure scandal.

The lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno, is the frontrunner in the primary election on the Republican side, while Phil Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc executive who served as US ambassador to Germany under former President Barack Obama, holds a solid lead in polling among the Democrats. Guadagno, who won election as the state’s first lieutenant governor alongside Christie in 2009, was Monmouth County’s first elected female sheriff and, like Christie, served as a federal prosecutor.

With Christie absent frequently during the presidential campaign, Guadagno has already spent months as acting governor. But she has also faced criticism from her opponents based on her association with the unpopular Republican incumbent. As a result, Guadagno, 58, has tried to execute a balancing act, distancing herself from Christie on some issues like his $300 million proposal to renovate the aging statehouse in Trenton while taking credit for the state’s low unemployment figures.

“In most situations where you have a second-in-command, that person will enjoy some incumbency advantage,” said Brigid Callahan Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair University in New Jersey. “In fact, what we see is the exact opposite. His enormous unpopularity is an albatross around her candidacy.” At a recent debate, Guadagno sparred with her main Republican rival, Assemblyman Jack Ciatterelli, over the latter’s plan to hike taxes on millionaires. Guadagno has vowed not to raise any taxes.

Ciatterelli, 55, has criticized Christie, and by extension Guadagno, for the state’s repeated credit rating downgrades in the face of budget problems. The latest Stockton University poll, released last week, gave Guadagno 37 percent support among primary voters, with Ciatterelli trailing at 18 percent. About a third of those polled, however, said they remained undecided. — Reuters