2005 New Jersey gubernatorial election
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Corzine: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Forrester: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% >90% Tie: 50% | |||||||||||||||||
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Elections in New Jersey |
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The 2005 New Jersey gubernatorial election was a race to determine the Governor of New Jersey. It was held on November 8, 2005. Democratic Governor Richard Codey, who replaced Governor Jim McGreevey in 2004 after his resignation, did not run for election for a full term of office.
The primary election was held on June 7, 2005. U.S. Senator Jon Corzine won the Democratic nomination without serious opposition. Former West Windsor Mayor Doug Forrester received the Republican nomination with a plurality of 36%. Corzine defeated Forrester in the general election. New Jersey is reliably Democratic at the federal level, but this was the first time since 1977 in which Democrats won more than one consecutive gubernatorial election in the state. This was the first time since 1965 that a Democrat won a gubernatorial race without Ocean County, and the first since 1961 that they did so without Monmouth County.
The 2005 general election also saw a public referendum question on the ballot for the voters to decide whether to create a position of lieutenant governor, alter the state's order of succession, and whether the state's first lieutenant governor would be chosen in the subsequent gubernatorial election held in 2009.[1][2] The question passed by a tally of 836,134 votes (56.1%) to 655,333 (43.9%).[3] To date, this is the most recent election that Salem County voted for the Democratic candidate in a gubernatorial race.
Background
[edit]Governor Jim McGreevey was elected in 2001 by a large margin but resigned from office in November 2004 after Golan Cipel, an Israeli national and former advisor to the Governor, threatened to bring a lawsuit for sexual harassment, and thus reveal McGreevey was homosexual. Though McGreevey admitted to an "adult consensual affair with another man" on August 12, 2004, he announced that he would not resign from office until November 15, after the fall general election.[4][5][6][7]
McGreevey's decision to delay the effective date of his resignation until after September 3, 2004, avoided a November special election for governor, which would have coincided with the election for President of the United States. The 2004 election between George W. Bush and John Kerry was expected to be competitive, the political aftermath of the September 11 attacks in the state, and some observers speculated that McGreevey's decision to delay his resignation was designed to improve Kerry's political position and preserve Democratic Party control of the office of Governor.[8][9][10]
Republicans and Democrats alike called upon McGreevey to make his resignation effective immediately.[11][12] The New York Times editorial board opined, "Mr. McGreevey's strategy to delay resignation does not serve New Jersey residents well. The state will be led by an embattled governor mired in personal and legal problems for three months."[13] On September 15, U.S. District Judge Garrett E. Brown Jr. dismissed Afran v. McGreevey,[14] a lawsuit by Green Party members claiming that the postponement of McGreevey's resignation had left a vacancy, thereby violating New Jerseyans' voting rights.[15][16]
New Jersey Senate President Richard Codey took office upon McGreevey's resignation[17] and served the remainder of the term until January 17, 2006.[18] At the time of McGreevey's resignation, the New Jersey State Constitution stipulated that the Senate president retains that position while serving as acting governor.[19] In the wake of McGreevey's resignation, and in consideration of other past New Jersey governors who had left office before the end of their terms,[20][21] the New Jersey legislature passed a resolution establishing a public referendum on the creation of the position of Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey.[22]
Democratic primary
[edit]Candidates
[edit]Nominee
[edit]- Jon Corzine, U.S. Senator[23]
Eliminated in primary
[edit]- James D. Kelly Jr., telecommunications company employee[24]
- Francis X. Tenaglio, former Pennsylvania State Representative
Declined
[edit]- Richard Codey, incumbent Governor and president of the New Jersey Senate
Results
[edit]Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Jon S. Corzine | 207,670 | 88.08 | |
Democratic | James D. Kelly, Jr. | 19,512 | 8.28 | |
Democratic | Francis X. Tenaglio | 8,596 | 3.65 | |
Total votes | 235,778 | 100.00 |
Republican primary
[edit]Candidates
[edit]Nominee
[edit]- Doug Forrester, former Mayor of West Windsor and nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2002
Eliminated in Primary
[edit]- Todd Caliguire, Bergen County Freeholder
- Paul DiGaetano, Assemblyman from Nutley
- Steve Lonegan, Mayor of Bogota
- John J. Murphy, Morris County Freeholder and former Mayor of Morris Township
- Bob Schroeder, Washington Township Councilman
- Bret Schundler, former Mayor of Jersey City and nominee for Governor in 2001
Declined
[edit]Results
[edit]Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Doug Forrester | 108,941 | 36.01 | |
Republican | Bret Schundler | 94,417 | 31.21 | |
Republican | John J. Murphy | 33,800 | 11.17 | |
Republican | Steve Lonegan | 24,433 | 8.08 | |
Republican | Robert Schroeder | 16,763 | 5.54 | |
Republican | Paul DiGaetano | 16,684 | 5.52 | |
Republican | Todd Caliguire | 7,463 | 2.47 | |
Total votes | 302,501 | 100.00 |
General election
[edit]Candidates
[edit]- Wesley Bell, former mayor of Stafford Township (Independent)
- Hector Castillo, physician and candidate for mayor of Paterson in 2002 (Independent)
- Jon Corzine, U.S. Senator (Democratic)
- Ed Forchion, Candidate for U.S. Representative in New Jersey's 3rd congressional district in 2004 (Marijuana)
- Doug Forrester, businessman, nominee for U.S. Senate in 2002, and former Mayor of West Windsor (Republican)
- Angela Lariscy, candidate for U.S. Representative in New Jersey's 13th congressional district in 2004 (Socialist Workers)
- Michael Latigona, registered nurse and EMT from Marlton (Independent)
- Jeffrey Pawlowski, former Sayreville borough councilman (Libertarian)
- Constantino Rozzo, candidate for U.S. Representative in New Jersey's 2nd congressional district in 2004 (Socialist)
- Matthew Thieke, computer software analyst and resident of Maple Shade (Green)
Debates
[edit]The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission declared that the four candidates would be included in the official gubernatorial debates to be aired on NJN. They included Jeffrey Pawlowski and Hector Castillo.
- Complete video of debate, September 20, 2005
- Complete video of debate, October 18, 2005
- Complete video of debate, November 5, 2005
Predictions
[edit]Source | Ranking | As of |
---|---|---|
Sabato's Crystal Ball[29] | Likely D | October 25, 2005 |
Polling
[edit]![]() | Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
Source | Date | Jon Corzine (D) |
Doug Forrester (R) |
Other | Undecided |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rasmussen Archived November 23, 2005, at the Wayback Machine | June 8, 2005 | 47% | 40% | 5% | 8% |
Rutgers Archived September 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine | June 12, 2005 | 43% | 33% | – | – |
Quinnipiac | June 15, 2005 | 47% | 37% | – | – |
Rasmussen Archived July 19, 2005, at the Wayback Machine | July 15, 2005 | 50% | 38% | 4% | 8% |
Strategic Vision | July 19, 2005 | 48% | 40% | – | – |
Fairleigh Dickinson-PublicMind | July 21, 2005 | 47% | 34% | – | – |
Rasmussen Archived November 23, 2005, at the Wayback Machine | August 7, 2005 | 45% | 37% | 5% | – |
Quinnipiac | August 10, 2005 | 50% | 40% | – | – |
Strategic Vision | August 18, 2005 | 50% | 40% | – | – |
Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers Archived September 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine | September 12, 2005 | 48% | 28% | – | – |
Strategic Vision | September 16, 2005 | 47% | 36% | – | – |
Rasmussen Archived November 23, 2005, at the Wayback Machine | September 19, 2005 | 47% | 36% | 5% | – |
Fairleigh-Dickinson | September 26, 2005 | 48% | 38% | 4% | 10% |
Monmouth University | September 28, 2005 | 46% | 38% | – | – |
Quinnipiac | September 28, 2005 | 48% | 44% | – | – |
Rasmussen Archived 2005-10-18 at the Wayback Machine | October 6, 2005 | 45% | 38% | 5% | – |
Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers | October 3–6, 2005 | 44% | 37% | – | – |
Marist Archived October 13, 2005, at the Wayback Machine | October 10, 2005 | 44% | 43% | – | – |
Survey USA | October 11, 2005 | 49% | 41% | 5% | 5% |
Strategic Vision | October 13, 2005 | 46% | 40% | – | – |
Quinnipiac | October 19, 2005 | 50% | 43% | – | – |
Rasmussen Archived 2005-12-27 at the Wayback Machine | October 20, 2005 | 49% | 40% | 3% | – |
Survey USA | October 25, 2005 | 50% | 41% | 7% | 3% |
Strategic Vision | November 2, 2005 | 48% | 42% | – | – |
Fairleigh-Dickinson | November 2, 2005 | 44% | 40% | 3% | 13% |
Quinnipiac | November 2, 2005 | 50% | 38% | – | – |
Marist College Archived February 14, 2006, at the Wayback Machine | November 4, 2005 | 51% | 41% | – | – |
Monmouth University[permanent dead link] | November 4, 2005 | 47% | 38% | – | – |
Rasmussen Archived November 26, 2005, at the Wayback Machine | November 6, 2005 | 44% | 39% | 5% | 12% |
Quinnipiac | November 7, 2005 | 52% | 45% | – | – |
Survey USA | November 7, 2005 | 50% | 44% | 5% | 2% |
Results
[edit]Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Jon Corzine | 1,224,551 | 53.47% | ![]() | |
Republican | Doug Forrester | 985,271 | 43.02% | ![]() | |
Independent | Hector Castillo | 29,452 | 1.29% | N/A | |
Libertarian | Jeffrey Pawlowski | 15,417 | 0.67% | ![]() | |
Green | Matthew Thieke | 12,315 | 0.54% | ![]() | |
Legalize Marijuana | Edward Forchion | 9,137 | 0.40% | N/A | |
Independent | Michael Latigona | 5,169 | 0.23% | ||
Independent | Wesley Bell | 4,178 | 0.18% | N/A | |
Socialist Workers | Angela Lariscy | 2,531 | 0.11% | ![]() | |
Socialist | Constantino Rozzo | 2,078 | 0.09% | ![]() | |
Majority | 239,280 | 10.45% | −4.31% | ||
Turnout | 2,290,099 | ||||
Democratic hold | Swing |
- Results by county[30]
County | Corzine votes | Corzine % | Forrester votes | Forrester % | Other votes | Other % |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Atlantic | 34,539 | 53.3% | 28,004 | 43.2% | 2,238 | 3.5% |
Bergen | 142,319 | 55.6% | 108,017 | 42.2% | 5,683 | 2.2% |
Burlington | 64,421 | 50.5% | 57,908 | 45.4% | 5,203 | 4.1% |
Camden | 76,955 | 60.4% | 45,079 | 35.4% | 5,458 | 4.3% |
Cape May | 14,375 | 45.2% | 16,179 | 50.9% | 1,243 | 3.9% |
Cumberland | 18,580 | 57.2% | 12,692 | 39.0% | 1,231 | 3.8% |
Essex | 131,312 | 72.7% | 45,789 | 25.4% | 3,456 | 1.9% |
Gloucester | 41,128 | 53.2% | 33,225 | 43.0% | 3,004 | 3.9% |
Hudson | 87,409 | 75.4% | 25,769 | 22.2% | 2,691 | 2.3% |
Hunterdon | 15,004 | 33.6% | 27,521 | 61.6% | 2,179 | 4.9% |
Mercer | 56,592 | 57.1% | 38,871 | 39.2% | 3,596 | 3.6% |
Middlesex | 107,176 | 56.0% | 75,021 | 39.2% | 9,085 | 4.7% |
Monmouth | 85,187 | 43.8% | 101,085 | 51.9% | 8,376 | 4.3% |
Morris | 60,986 | 41.3% | 82,550 | 56.0% | 3,997 | 2.7% |
Ocean | 71,953 | 41.6% | 93,693 | 54.2% | 7,242 | 4.2% |
Passaic | 61,803 | 57.9% | 41,532 | 38.9% | 3,413 | 3.2% |
Salem | 10,057 | 48.6% | 9,608 | 46.5% | 1,008 | 4.9% |
Somerset | 40,459 | 43.3% | 49,406 | 52.8% | 3,661 | 3.9% |
Sussex | 14,854 | 35.1% | 25,283 | 59.7% | 2,182 | 5.2% |
Union | 77,982 | 59.2% | 50,036 | 38.0% | 3,677 | 2.8% |
Warren | 11,460 | 36.8% | 18,003 | 57.9% | 1,654 | 5.3% |
Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican
[edit]- Monmouth (largest municipality: Middletown Township)
- Ocean (largest municipality: Lakewood)
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Mansnerus, Laura. "On Politics: The Advantage of Having A Lieutenant Governor" in The New York Times (March 27, 2005). Retrieved August 30, 2013.
- ^ New Jersey State Legislature. Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 2 (SCR2): "A Concurrent Resolution proposing to amend Articles II, IV, V, and XI of the Constitution of the State of New Jersey" Archived 2013-09-21 at the Wayback Machine (2004) and Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 100 (ACR100): "A Concurrent Resolution proposing to amend Articles II, IV, V and XI of the Constitution of the State of New Jersey" Archived 2013-09-21 at the Wayback Machine (2005). Retrieved 30 August 2013. Note that The New Jersey State Legislature doesn't provide distinct web addresses for its transactions on specific bills, however, at http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/BillView.asp Archived 2013-09-13 at the Wayback Machine click on "Bills 2004–2005" and search for ACR100 and SCR2 for these bills, vote tallies and historical information regarding their passage.
- ^ New Jersey Division of Elections (New Jersey Department of State). "Official List Ballot Questions Tally For November 2005 General Election" Archived 2013-11-12 at the Wayback Machine (certified 16 December 2005). Retrieved 30 August 2013.
- ^ Cloud, John (August 23, 2004). "The Governor's Secret Life". Time. Vol. 164, no. 8. Archived from the original on February 22, 2007. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
- ^ "McGreevey: 'I am a gay American'". CNN. August 13, 2004. Archived from the original on August 14, 2004. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
- ^ "New Jersey governor quits, comes out as gay". CNN. August 13, 2004. Archived from the original on August 16, 2004. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
- ^ Kohen, Yael (August 13, 2004). "McGreevey to quit, declares 'I am a gay American'". The New York Sun. Archived from the original on November 3, 2004. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
- ^ Kocieniewski, David (September 5, 2004). "McGreevey Stays Put, and Intrigue Builds". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 28, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
- ^ Mansnerus, Laura (August 17, 2004). "McGreevey Hunkers Down, but Exit Pressure Grows". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 20, 2019. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ Sabato, Larry J. (August 16, 2004). "The McGreevey Matter – The impact on presidential politics". Archived from the original on February 13, 2008. Retrieved March 10, 2008.
- ^ Mansnerus, Laura; Kocieniewski, David (August 13, 2004). "Ex-Aide Says He Was Victim of McGreevey". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 24, 2009. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
- ^ Dewar, Helen; Garcia, Michelle (August 18, 2004). "Democrats Press McGreevey to Quit". Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 9, 2012. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
- ^ "The Governor's Secret". The New York Times. August 13, 2004. Archived from the original on April 24, 2009. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
- ^ Linstrum, Erik (September 9, 2004). "Princeton-area lawyers file lawsuit against McGreevey". The Daily Princetonian. Archived from the original on September 6, 2006. Retrieved March 10, 2008.
- ^ "Judge won't order special N.J. election". USA Today. Associated Press. September 15, 2004. Archived from the original on April 14, 2008.
- ^ Mansnerus, Laura (September 16, 2004). "Judge Dismisses Case Seeking a Vote to Replace McGreevey". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 28, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
- ^ Mansnerus, Laura; Beston, Josh (November 16, 2004). "Transition Ends: A Quiet Goodbye for McGreevey". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 28, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
- ^ Jones, Richard Lezin; Benson, Josh (January 11, 2006). "A Sentimental Last Address as a Temporary Governor". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 11, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
- ^ "New Jersey State Constitution". njleg.state.nj.us. Archived from the original on June 30, 2009. Retrieved March 10, 2008.
- ^ Benson, Josh (October 25, 2005). "New Jersey, Used to Having Governors Leave Early, Considers Need for a Lieutenant". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 13, 2023. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
- ^ Shure, John (September 10, 2004). "The People Should Choose Who Fills the Shoes". New Jersey Policy Perspective. Archived from the original on November 12, 2013. Retrieved November 12, 2013.
- ^ "Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 2 (SCR2)" (PDF). New Jersey State Legislature. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
A Concurrent Resolution proposing to amend Articles II, IV, V, and XI of the Constitution of the State of New Jersey
- ^ Kornacki, Steve. "Exit everyman: How the Jersey Democratic bosses destroyed Dick Codey and unleashed Chris Christie" in "Politico" (January 28, 2013). Retrieved April 19, 2022
- ^ "James D. Kelly Jr." in "Our Campaigns". Retrieved April 19, 2022
- ^ http://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/election-results/05_primary_official_results-gov.pdf [dead link]
- ^ Shears, Ian T. (September 8, 2004). "Christie's brother emerges as a major GOP fund-raiser". The Jersey Journal.
- ^ "Corzine to announce bid for governor". The Jersey Journal. November 26, 2004.
- ^ "Candidates for Governor" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 20, 2012. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
- ^ "The 2005 Off-Off-Year Elections: Hardfast Harbinger or Harmless Happenstance? | Sabato's Crystal Ball".
- ^ a b "Official List Candidates for Governor For November 2005 General Election" (PDF). New Jersey Secretary of State. December 16, 2005. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
External links
[edit]- Candidates