NYT: Forrester to Face Corzine in Race for New Jersey Governor

[DeepModem Mom]

Forrester to Face Corzine in Race for New Jersey Governor
By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI
Published: June 8, 2005


Douglas R. Forrester, who became a multimillionaire by founding a company that manages pharmacy benefits, won the Republican nomination for New Jersey governor yesterday after vastly outspending six opponents to promise lower property taxes and a crackdown on the state's notoriously corrupt political culture.

Mr. Forrester, a former small town mayor, made an unanticipated debut in statewide politics in 2002, losing the United States Senate race decisively to Frank R. Lautenberg after ethics questions forced the incumbent, Robert G. Torricelli, from the race. When Gov. James E. McGreevey resigned last August amid a sex scandal, Mr. Forrester moved quickly, running radio and television advertisements promoting himself as a corruption fighter.

Despite the misgivings of some party leaders, a crowded field of Republican rivals and an often rancorous primary, Mr. Forrester's more than $10 million in spending allowed him to dominate the race. No other candidate spent more than $3 million. With 98 percent of the vote counted, Mr. Forrester won 36 percent of the vote; Bret D. Schundler, the conservative who was routed by Democrat James E. McGreevey in the 2001 governor's race, had 31 percent.

After a long, chaotic and increasingly caustic campaign, turnout was light and many Republicans said they had ultimately come to the conclusion that Mr. Forrester was more electable than Mr. Schundler, whom Democrats painted as an ideological extremist whose views in favor of school vouchers and against abortion rights were too conservative for a moderate state like New Jersey.

The victory will pit Mr. Forrester against United States Senator Jon S. Corzine, who coasted to victory yesterday against two declared Democratic candidates who did not muster statewide campaigns. But in his victory speech, Mr. Forrester made it clear that he would hold Democrats accountable for the myriad scandals of the McGreevey administration and take Mr. Corzine to task for donating millions of dollars to the Democratic power brokers who run much of the state....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/08/nyregion/metrocampaigns/08jersey.html

[saltpoint]

1. Well, of the two, I'm for Jon Corzine for sure.

Forrester has more than a whiff of Uber-Corporate Robot to him.

Gives me the creeps.