A Single Editorial Changes My Primary Vote

As June draws near, the New Jersey Republican party will select a candidate who will try to oust the failed Democratic governor, Jon Corzine.

As of a month ago, I don't think I really had any clear notion of whether I'd vote for Chris Christie, a former US attorney, or Steve Lonegan, a former Bergen county town mayor.

Beginning about a month ago, televised ads on cable channels began to appear in large numbers for Christie. It painted him as a desirable, attractive conservative candidate. He even appeared on Neil Cavuto's program on Fox News last week. In that appearance, Christie roundly criticized his opponent, Lonegan, as wanting to raise taxes.

Then I read this weekend Wall Street Journal's editorial, written by a columnist for the local newspaper. According to that piece, Christie is really a traditional New Jersey GOP moderate, in the vein of Whitman and Kean. That is, they are socially liberal and spend too much money, but want to cut taxes.

But even that isn't the worst of what I read about Christie. According to the Newark Star-Ledger's Paul Mulshine, Christie has had some questionable dealings with law firms during his years as a US attorney. It is alleged that sweetheart contracts were let to old colleagues, and that Christie's brother, Todd, was given a lighter sentence than others found guilty of illegal front running, in deference to Mr. Christie's position and influence.

There's always the question of Mr. Mulshine's own objectivity, given that the Star-Ledger is hardly a conservative paper.

But, in just a few minutes, my certainty about voting for Christie vanished. I'll have to do some digging online now to get a better sense of both candidates.

As bad as Corzine is- and he's totally inept- I don't want another rerun of Christie Whitman's moderate politics. This state needs serious damage control and repair, and fast. A moderate masquerading as a conservative just to win the GOP nomination for governor is not going to get the job done.