| NEW JERSEY | 15 Electoral Votes |
| Bush-Cheney | Gore-Lieberman |
| Campaign | Campaign |
| Bush-Cheney
State Director: Rocco Iossa
...lawyer; started organizing for Bush in NJ in the exploratory committee phase back in mid-1999. Former executive director of the NJ Republican State Committee. Helped on Christie Whitman's 1993 gubernatorial campaign and served as a lawyer in the governor's office. Office: 1 Route 2000, Somerville Victory 2000 Exec. Dir.: Cosmo Servidio New Jersey Republican
State Committee
|
Gore-Lieberman
State Director: Maggie Moran
...state director for Sen. Frank Lautenberg from 1998 to July 2000. Political director for the NJ Dem. State Committee during 1997-98. Director of rapid response/operations for the 1996 coordinated campaign. Pol. Dir.: Gerry Gibbs Press Sec.: Tereta Scope Office: 317 George Street, 5th Floor, New Brunswick Coordinated Campaign Director: Joe Tyrrell New Jersey Democratic
State Committee
|
| Candidate
Travel (Aug. 1-Nov. 7)
GWB: 1 visit DC: 1 visit |
Candidate
Travel (Aug. 1-Nov. 7)
AG: 2 visits JL: 2 visits |
| Nov. 4 evening-- GWB and LB Victory 2000 rally at Drew University in Madison. | |
| Oct. 19 -- 1. JL attends a Connelly for Congress reception at a private residence in Short Hills. 2. JL attends a DNC reception at a private residence in Englewood ($). | |
| Oct. 18 -- DC at New Jersey Victory 2000 reception, Hanover Marriot Hotel, Whippany. | |
| Oct. 4 -- AG attends fundraiser at rock star Jon Bon Jovi's home in Red Banks/Middletown (produced traffic snarls on the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway) ($). | |
| Sept. 26 -- 1. JL delivers speech on Medicare, Union Township Senior Center, Union. 2. JL attends DNC luncheon, Kushner Industries, Florham Park ($). 3. JL addresses the Bricklayers Convention, Atlantic City Convention Center, Atlantic City. | |
| Sept. 12 -- AG attends DNC Gala Concert, E Centre, Camden ($). | |
| A Sampling of More Campaign Activity | A Sampling of More Campaign Activity |
| Sept. 18 -- Doro Bush Koch (Bush's sister) along with Gov. Whitman and others helps open the Bush headquarters in Somerville. | Oct. 16 -- U.S. Rep. Robert Menendez (D, NJ-13) and Hispanic leaders hold Ganamos con Gore event at the Elizabeth Democratic Headquarters to encourage Hispanic voters to turn out. |
| Television | Television |
| Some Newspaper Endorsements | Some Newspaper Endorsements |
| The Courier-Post (Camden)
Asbury Park Press The Trentonian Atlantic City Press --11/3/00 |
The
Record (Bergen County) --10/27/00
The Times (Trenton) --10/29/00 Montclair Times --11/2/00 |
| Miscellaneous Notes | Miscellaneous Notes |
| The PoliticsNJ.com
website named Bush state director Rocco Iossa as a "Loser of the Year Runner
Up" (Dec. 2000), noting that Bush's 16 point deficit was "worst showing
of a successful presidential candidate in New Jersey in the history of
the state."
A lively exchange on PoliticsNJ.com's "Wally Edge's Message Board" preceded this dubious honor. Most messages were strongly critical; there were quite a few references to unreturned phone calls, and many expressed the view that Bush's poor showing contributed to the defeats of Bob Franks and Dick Zimmer. One critic wrote, "rocco could have communicated better with the county chairmen. he could have returned phone calls. they could have run a grass-roots campaign, just like the rest of us do when we don't have any money. rocco was more interested in big meetings in texas and trying to leverage his bush post..." Another opined, "Rocco could have kept it inside 15 points with a little effort and widening his circle in NJ. If he kept at 10 points Bob Franks would be in the US Senate and Dick Zimmer would be in the House." A defender responded that, "Rocco played the hand he was dealt, which had no candidate, no television, no radio, a $3 million Democratic GOTV effort, and a senate candidate who ran away from his presidential nominee." |
Gore director
Maggie Moran observed that the choice of Joe Lieberman provided a big boost
to Gore. "When Joe Lieberman joined the ticket we immediately went
up in the polls," she said. "New Jersey folks are familiar with Joe
Lieberman and liked his centrist record. Having a Northeasterner
on the ticket was very helpful. The Jewish community in New Jersey
was engaged and commited, which helped the entire ticket."
The coordinated campaign and Corzine for Senate put tremendous resources into New Jersey, also benefitting Gore/Lieberman. Democrats spent $2.3 million on a base vote program targeting African American and Latino voters; Regena Thomas, a veteran of the Democratic National Committee, ran the program. Democrats also spent $900,000 to reach Anglo voters in targeted districts. Heading into Election Day, Corzine and the coordinated campaign had more than 57 employees in the field. Corzine spent heavily on television advertising, which pushed many of the same themes as the Gore campaign. In addition, the large Gore/DNC buys in the Philadelphia media market covered viewers in South Jersey. Although Gore won New Jersey by almost 16 percent, Corzine's margin was just 3 percent. Democrats' analysis suggests the difference came from independent white women, who went to Gore based on choice, education and prescription drugs, but were offended by Corzine's excessive spending. |
Nader
On Oct. 15 Ralph
Nader spoke at Rutgers University in Piscataway; gave a speech followed
by fundraising reception at Count Basie Theater in Red Bank; and spoke
at Princeton University. On Oct. 28 he held a press conference
at the Rutgers University campus in Newark.
State Coordinator:
Rob Holzapel
Green Party of New Jersey
Chairman: Hally Abbott
Buchanan
On the evening of Oct.
5 Pat Buchanan spoke at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center
in Edison.
The Reform Party of New Jersey
held its convention June 14, 2000 at Raritan Community College in North
Branch. Party chairman Ira Goldman had resigned the previous day;
the convention selected Buchanan backer Joe Sansone of Whitehouse as chairman.
Browne
New Jersey Libertarian
Party
Chairman: Ed Wiessmann
Copyright 2000, 2001
Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action.