Jon Corzine’s campaign website mainly focuses on the state of the economy, jobs, healthcare, education, and endorsements for the governor. Much of this focus is shown on the homepage as commercial ad attacks on Christie (most recently on mammograms and early childhood education) next to positive ads talking about Corzine’s successes on healthcare in the state. Chris Christie’s campaign website, on the other hand, focuses on his stance with law enforcement, teachers, and fire fighters. For his site’s overview of his policies, it displays an attack ad on Corzine and high property taxes and emphasizes “cutting taxes, controlling spending, and creating jobs”. The most recent set of the Chrisitie campaign’s press releases are all attacks on “Corzine taxes” declaring, “Everywhere we go… Jon Corzine’s property taxes follow.”

Many media outlets have been covering this election carefully, but how is the media reporting the candidate’s messages? One recent article in the Asbury Park Press challenged both major candidates on their lack of detail on the property tax issue. The article states that, “The topic is not addressed in their TV ads and given short shrift on their campaign web sites…[Daggett is the only] one of the three major candidates for governor that has offered a detailed plan to combat your highest-in-nation property taxes.”

An article on Politico.com entitled “Will Chris Christie be the Biggest Loser?” talked about a recent Corzine ad arguing that Christie was “throwing his weight around as district attorney” to get out of multiple traffic violations. The article goes on to focus on the ad’s visuals of the heavyset Christie getting out of his SUV in slow motion. This story even made its rounds on MSNBC’s Hardball and the New York Times as dirty negative politics coming from the Corzine campaign.

Unfortunately for both major party candidates, the media is reporting more and more that voters are being turned off by the negative ads coming from both campaigns. The New York Times reported, “[Corzine and Christie] appear to be turning off voters with nasty ads and personal attacks; Mr. Daggett is turning them on — or at least persuading them to give him a closer look.” Mr. Daggett has just won The Star-Ledger’s endorsement for his property tax plan.

With this growing trend within the media to focus on the seeming reluctance for detailed property tax initiatives, negative attacks coming from both Corzine and Chrisite, and the appeal of the independent Chris Daggett, how do these two campaigns use new media to push the messages they want out there? Corzine would like the focus to be on healthcare, his relationship with Barack Obama, the New Jersey Stimulus, and the shortfalls of his rival. Chrisite wants to focus on Corzine and his failures, cutting taxes, and stopping the Democratic State Senate from spending more.

Both the Corzine and Christie campaigns have turned to social networking websites to get their messages and ads out there. Twitter and Facebook users can follow both candidates and get links to videos, pictures, articles, or press releases that the campaigns want the voters to see. The campaigns have even implemented text-messaging systems, where people can subscribe to get text message alerts from the campaign on their cell phones. These include messages about registration deadlines, post-debate polls, and will provide them with a mass messaging system to alert voters to vote on Election Day. This has become a valuable strategy.

Pollster has showed in recent weeks since the debate that the race is continuing to tighten. It remains to be seen how effective Daggett will be in pulling votes from Corzine and Christie, but Corzine has nearly tied Christie in Pollster’s snapshot of polls at 40% to Christie’s 41.4% average. The trend shows a steady decline for Christie mainly due to his lacking performance in the debates and the effectiveness of negative attack ads coming from the Corzine campaign. Despite the media and voter’s rejection of negative attack ads, they appear to be effective for the Corzine campaign. Interestingly, Google Trends, Google’s search rating system, shows that in 2009 a search for “Jon Corzine” yielded a 3.2 search index less than “Chris Christie” at 3.9. This shows that more people are “googling” Chrisite.

Corzine’s ad campaign and political endorsements has helped him come back from a once certain death in the polls. The Christie campaign is now on the defensive, answering attack ads with attack ads and showing an inability to dominate the media frenzy. They have been even more unsuccessful in getting their message out to the public. The interesting trend to watch leading up to the election is the impact of Daggett, who is gaining the support of traditional media. The question is who will he hurt more?

The line began to form outside the gym hours before the event was to begin. The doors were supposed to open at 7:30pm, but ended up opening about an hour earlier to accommodate the huge turnout for the event. With their personal bubble’s shrinking as more and more people filed in, the people in the front desperately tried to catch a glimpse of Clinton as everyone gathered backstage.  After a series of speakers (the crowd growing more and more impatient to see Clinton with each) President Clinton finally took the stage with Governor Corzine and his running mate, Loretta Weinberg.

Corzine introduced Clinton by reminding us that America was “respected around the world and we were at peace” when Clinton was president.  Corzine promised not to talk long, knowing the crowd was desperate to hear Clinton speak, so he focused on encouraging students to vote. He emphasized how much elections matter, referencing the debacle that was 2000. He told the crowd to talk to their friends and family and make sure that everyone votes, no matter for whom. As a chant of “four more years” resounded throughout the gym, Corzine promised to fight for healthcare for everyone, more money for dorms, and to ensure that women have the right to make their own choices.

President Clinton took to the podium to a huge ovation and camera flashes worthy of Derek Jeter in the post-season. He began by praising Loretta Weinberg, calling her a progressive “Jewish grandmother”. He praised the audience, saying it was great to have such a diverse crowd, which would not have been the case in the past. While it was a great time to be alive, Clinton said our country faced three problems: it was unequal, unstable, and unsustainable. We need to create more winners and fewer losers, he said.

Clinton asked the crowd an important question: “Why is this a close race?” He continued by listing the statistics of Corzine’s previous four years in office. For instance, under Corzine, New Jersey was the first state in the Union to have an economic recovery plan, which was actually used as a model for the national plan. He also pointed out among other things that New Jersey is first in the nation for the number of high school graduates and second in solar, wind, and other clean energy use. Clinton also boasted that Jon Corzine had gotten over 3% of the federal stimulus money, which is a bigger percentage than New Jersey’s population is of the national population.

Like Corzine, Clinton emphasized the importance of getting out and voting in the upcoming election. We need to make our “good intentions into changes in other people’s lives.” Fewer people are better at this than Jon Corzine, he said. This should not be a close race, and as both Jon Corzine and President Clinton reminded us, the future is in our hands.

The President of the Rutgers Democrats, Alex Holodak, was scheduled to give a speech of his own with Governor Corzine and President Obama at the rally in Holmdel, NJ. Due to time constrictions with the President, Alex did not actually get to speak. While this allowed the crowd to have more time hearing from President Obama, we think Alex wrote an amazing speech and deserves to have it out there for people to at least read. That speech, in its entirety, is below.

Good afternoon and welcome fellow New Jerseyans, members of the Rutgers community and welcome to our very special guest, the President of the United States, Barack Obama!  Now, we are all here at the PNC Bank Arts Center, yet it matters not where you sit, but by whom you sit.  Look now to your right, look to your left.  They are your friends, they are your peers; this is your community, this is our state.  We are here today for the common purpose of demonstrating our confidence in and our support for the governor of the great state of New Jersey – Jon Corzine!If education is not our top priority today, then we invite failure tomorrow. To this noble end, Governor Corzine has endeavored to strengthen our schools, support our teachers and inspire our students.  Without fear, Governor Corzine has not simply stepped on the so-called third rail of New Jersey politics, but has in fact dared to neutralize it.  Once considered improbable, if not impossible, he signed legislation to consolidate school districts and services, thereby eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy and realizing greater efficiencies.

Breaking a 40 year impasse on school funding, Governor Corzine implemented a new formula that has brought our state’s students back into focus, one which provides for a more equitable distribution of funds and increases funding for special education.

Owing to our governors great efforts, we boast the highest graduation rates in the country.  New Jersey is ranked #1 by Education Weekly for preschool enrollments and New Jersey students are also considered among the best prepared for higher education.  We must now resolve to work hard so as to allow Governor Corzine another four years so he may continue raising the standards in education.

Jon Corzine is a chief executive, with proven successes in both public and private sectors, who has made tough decisions, and whose steady hand has steered our ship of state through a dark time. The current financial crisis looms large over us all, but we may find comfort in the seasoned financial expert, that is our governor, who leads our state.  It is today, more than any other, worth mentioning that when the Obama administration crafted the economic stimulus plan, which has saved tens of thousands of jobs and strengthened our economy, they went to one of the nation’s foremost authorities on finance – Jon Corzine.  Described by Vice President Joe Biden as, “America’s Governor,” Jon Corzine possesses precisely the knowledge and ideas of leadership necessary in this tumultuous time.

As president of the Rutgers Democrats, I am here today as, yes, a partisan.  So-called partisan politics is decried in the media as a dirty word, but let’s take a look around. We should be proud to call ourselves democrats!  I am proud to be here with my peers from the University, I am proud to be here with Rutgers President Richard McCormick, and I am very proud to be here with Jon Corzine and Barack Obama!

Speaking now, to those specifically of my generation, we must realize that what our president has said is true – that this is our time!  We can no longer sit idly by with indifference and apathy.  We possess the potential for immense political power, but many of us choose to ignore our obligations, instead finding blissful ignorance in hollow distractions.  Don’t get me wrong, we all require and deserve outlets and levity, but I beg you to focus your energies this fall to the task at hand of re-electing Governor Corzine.

Today we have had an open and honest dialogue with one another. Yes, we are, for the most part, all democrats, but it need not be limited to one party.  If explained gently, with kindness and patience, our friends from the other side of the isle will recognize what we know to be true.  I recognize politics will not change overnight, but I also acknowledge that is changing.  I believe we stand at a precipice. Bastions of the old guard have signaled that even they are aware of the change that is so undeniably in the air.  Look to Washington, where a woman serves as Speaker of the House, where a man who less than century ago could not even vote, serves as our nations president. Look to Europe, once separated by differences, now united in their common humanity.  Look even to the Vatican, where Pope Benedict speaks not of maintaining the status quo, but of large changes. Up until today, there has been only tacit acknowledgement of the immense change that is taking place.

Well, today, I challenge you to join me in turning the page.  The seemingly endless chapter of old, dirty politics is over – we must turn the page.  The days we were on the sidelines are over – turn the page.  Gone is the fear and insecurity – We will turn the page this November!  But let it not stop there.  Let us continue this frank discussion.  Let us continue to have ideas and to take action.  We must endeavor to bring back the public square that is so necessary for the vital exchange of ideas, which drives that steady march of progress. So with that said, I invite those of you Rutgers students, to join our organization, the Rutgers Democrats on Facebook, Twitter.com/RUDems, or rudemocrats.com and to all of you to follow me at twitter.com/alexholodak so we can continue this discussion as we move forward.

Finally, I would like to thank the Corzine campaign for the opportunity to speak today.  I also would like to express my appreciation to Rutgers University. They have gone above and beyond to help our student organization in this effort. I am proud to be a product of Rutgers University.

In closing, Martin Luther King told us that, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.“ I want you to know that this matters! November 3rd matters! Our state matters! And re-electing Jon Corzine matters! Go vote and spread the word! Thank you!

-Alex Holodak, 2009