We need a good sex scandal to jump start the governor race
You know what could use a good sex scandal? The 2017 race for governor of New Jersey. It would really help get this important election front and center in the news cycle.
Just picture it … maybe we catch GOP candidate Kim Guadagno frolicking on a Caribbean beach with Jim Carrey. (Headline: PRIM KIM SWIMS WITH JIM). Or perhaps we find Phil Murphy, the Democrat, hooking up with literally any other human other than his wife because the headline would be so easy (MURPHY’S BED). (Or if we’re pushing things, PHIL’R UP.) (Now that I’ve spent two seconds thinking about it, I vote for PHIL’R UP. No question.)
Either way, it would certainly help push this election into high gear, because right now, it’s not even in low gear. It’s gearless. It’s without gear.
In fact, over 40 percent(!) of New Jersey voters claim to have never even heard of either candidate, according to the latest Rutgers-Eagleton poll. And why should they have heard of them? They’re both kind of boring. Neither has an outsize personality like current governor Chris Christie, and to do battle in his shadow is like trying to start a fire with a damp Q-tip and a pair of socks.
So does this mean it will continue? Will there be no interest in this election?
“Lots of people care, they just don’t realize it yet,” said Ben Dworkin, the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University. “People are very focused on the cost of living in New Jersey, their own job prospects, amount of college debt their children are facing. These are not atypical, but very real issues and the next governor has the opportunity to have a huge impact.”
Fair enough, but really: Is anyone going to care? Besides, anyone who’s following the race whatsoever is calling for a Murphy landslide. The betting markets agree: Over at paddypower.com, Murphy is installed as an unheard-of 1-to14 favorite (meaning you’d have to wager $14 to win a $1 on a Murphy victory).
“My sense is this is a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Dworkin said. “Conventional wisdom is that the race will not be very close, polling validates that conventional wisdom, and voters are less likely to pay attention when the race is less competitive.”
Dworkin also says President Donald Trump isn’t helping things.
“He sucks up the oxygen in the political news universe,” Dworkin noted. “So even the leading story in New Jersey politics becomes the fifth story in the political section of the newspaper.”
And it’s about to become the sixth, as the trial of Sen. Bob Menendez kicks off this week.
But let’s not forget: The governor of New Jersey is the most powerful governor in the nation. It matters who sits under the golden dome. (Or wherever the hell they’ll be sitting, as Christie’s $38 zajillian makeover of the State House will be happening.)
In very broad — Dworkin called them “simplistic” — strokes, Murphy wants to raise taxes on millionaires, Guadagno wants to lower taxes for the middle class. And when it comes time to vote, that’s going to be the math on the minds of us New Jerseyans. Take a little bit for ourselves or soak the rich. Can’t have both.
Of course, our minds can be swayed. A lot can happen between now and November.
“A political campaign is like a tennis match,” Dworkin said. “There’s always an opportunity for unforced errors. The state of the race on Labor Day can shift dramatically because someone makes a mistake or some kind of news item develops.”
Like a sex scandal. Is it wrong to root for that? It feels wrong, but I don’t care. This race needs some juice.