Can Chris Daggett Win the New Jersey Governors Race?

Hi Kids,

So what's the New Jersey Governors race got to do with politics in Georgia you ask? A lot actually. The current race in the Peoples Republic of New Jersey has the incumbent, Jon Corzine behind a republican challenger named Chris Christie with a dude named Chris Daggett rounding out the field. In the latest Rasmussen poll on the the subject, democrat millionaire Corzine is trailing republican Christie and the only candidate to see his support grow is the independent, Chris Daggett.

So who the hell is this guy Daggett and how the hell is he gaining on his republican and democrat opponents at this late date? Considering the fact that Jon Corzine spent 40 million of his own money on his first race for the Governorship and is poised to do it again to fend off the republican Christie, how can a guy like Daggett raise enough money to compete in the closing weeks of this election? The short answer is that Daggett can't and won't. Something else is driving his poll numbers other than traditional MSM ads and direct mail. I haven't discovered any "Independent Party" websites operating in New Jersey that are beating the bushes for support for Daggett either and I don't expect to.

It looks to me that the Daggett phenomenon is a real time expression of this summers Tea Party and Town Hall fads. Our political elites are still asleep at the switch when it comes to understanding that Americans do want change and they want it now, not next year, not 3 years from now, not 5 years from now. So a guy like Daggett comes along in an off year election in a solid blue state and offers some really mild revisions for public consideration and lo and behold the public listens. Bad news for the established two party duopoly.

And the lesson that Georgians can learn from the New Jersey election is that Libertarian John Monds has a real shot at winning the Governors race next year. He won't pull 50% +1 of the vote in the general election but he will force a run off by just being on the ticket and he just might knock out the republican or the democrat candidate in the process. He won't run a multi-million dollar campaign like King Roy or Ox or Deal or whoever the republicans finally pick, it'll be more like a multi-thousand dollar campaign. He will appear at the debates and the differences between him and the republican and democrat candidates will be stark and severe. And it might give the citizens of Georgia cause for pause.

So if this Daggett dude can upset the applecart in the Peoples Republic of New Jersey next month, is that a predictor of Libertarian success in Georgia in 2010?

You betcha.