Who are the Candidates?
| First Name | Last Name | Party | Former Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brian | Levine | Republican | Mayor of Franklin Township |
| Carl | Bergmason | Democrat | Mayor of Glen Ridge |
| Chris | Christie | Republican | US Attorney |
| Christopher | Daggett | Other | EPA Regional Administrator |
| Dennis | Knight | Republican | None |
| Jeff | Boss | Democrat | Independent POTUS candidate |
| Jon | Corzine | Democrat | Governor of NJ |
| Kostas | Petris | Other | None |
| Rick | Merkt | Republican | NJ Assemblyman |
| Steven | Lonegan | Republican | Mayor of Bogota |
A Table of the Candidates, Their Previous Office, and Party
In total the NJ ELEC data lists 10 candidates who were running for the office of governor in 2009. However, not all the candidates were created equal. Some simply had no real chance at actually becoming governor of New Jersey. Furthermore, some were simply able to get far more money than the others, making their elections easier. Still, money does not totally equal electoral victory. Even if you ignore the money, some candidates simply had more impressive resumes than the others. Finally, it is extremely rare for an incumbent politician (like Jon Corzine) to lose the primary election. In these cases, the primary is more of a formality than a serious election
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A Mosaic Chart Showing How Much Money Candidates Raised in the Primaries Compared to Each Other
Jon Corzine was able to dwarf the rest of the candidates in terms of money raised. As the incumbent governor and a personally wealthy man, Corzine was able to funnel vast amounts of money into his campaign. Still, Republicans Chris Christie and Steven Lonegan were able to raise respectable amounts of money themselves. The other candidates though did not fair nearly as well as Corzine, Christie, and Lonegan. The only other candidate who is show on the graph, Republican Rick Merkt, has such a small sliver his name and party can't even be shown on it. It is safe to say that candidates other than Corzine, Christie, and Lonegan can be described as not serious since they were unable to raise as much money as Corzine, Christie, and Lonegan. While money is not everything with campaigns, it is still helpful to have.
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A Mosaic Chart Showing How Much Money Republican Candidates Raised in the Primaries Compared to Each Other
Jon Corzine did have a fundraising advantage in the primaries since he was the incumbent governor, so had the support of the party elite and name recognition. The Republican candidates did not all have this level of support in the primaries, the position as the Republican Party Gubernatorial Candidate was still open for them. Still, the data shows that Christie and Lonegan are the two most serious Republican candidates in terms of funding. Both of them blew Merkt and Knight out of the water in terms of funds raised. Christie was able to raise far more money than any of the other Republicans, but his advantage does not compare to Corzine's total dominance in terms of fundraising. This further reinforces that candidates other than Corzine, Christie, and Lonegan are not likely to win. Still, the game was open for ether a Christie or a Lonegan vistory in the primary since all a candidate needs is a competitive amount of money to win.
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A Pie Chart Showing the Level of Government of Candidates Previous Office
Most of the candidates have had previous positions in some level of government. Still, a few candidates did run with no prior political office. Among candidates with prior offices it does not seem like one level of government totally dominated the other levels. About 20% had Federal office, about 20% had State offices, and about 30% had Municipal offices. The sample size is small so the data may not be accurate. One candidate's only previous office was as a candidate for another office. This is also not surprising as in most elections there is one perennial candidate. It is also logical that the perennial candidate has been a perennial candidate in other elections before the one they are currently running in.
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