Daggett Shines Over Christie, Corzine

BROOKLAWN, N.J. - In just a month, New Jersey voters head to the polls to pick the state's next governor.

And on Thursday night the three candidates squared off in the first of three face-to-face debates.

On the same day the latest poll put the race at its closest point yet, showing Republican Christ Christie's lead over Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine down to 3 percentage points after it was 9 points last month and 14 points in August.

"I don't intend to raise taxes but the fact is, you have to balance the budget," Corzine said at one point during the debate.

Christie said, "On taxes, let's be clear: when the governor says he will not rule out raising taxes and when he says it's a last resort, you know after watching the history of the last four years that if Jon Corzine says it's a last resort, that's a resort he'll be checking into. And he'll be taking money out of people's pockets."

It's not just Corzine cutting into Christie's lead. It's hardly-known independent Chris Daggett, a former Environmental Protection Agency official, who both Christie and Corzine said they agree with several times Thursday night.

"Sounds like both these two guys might vote for me," Daggett said.

Fox 29's Steve Keeley reported that much of the breakfast crowd at the Brooklawn Diner admitted they didn't watch the debate Friday night. And that's not a surprise because the political experts that we talk to all agree that most voters never watch debates but see and read the post-debate spin.

The immediate spin after Thursday night was that neither Corzine nor Christie won the debate, but that Daggett stole the show with a few unplanned and ad-libbed one-liners and a definite plan to cut property taxes by 25 percent by expanding the sales tax on things like Jersey Shore rentals and haircuts.

Three guests on "Good Day Philadelphia" had their own takes.

"Chris Christie was the only candidate who didn't propose new taxes or higher taxes," said Matt Rooney, of the Young Republicans.

"Gov. Corzine gave Daggett credit for at least putting a plan forward," said state Sen. Stephen Sweeney, D-3. "You know what I mean? At least he's talking about something. He has a plan. You might not like it, you might not believe in it, but he has something. Jon Corzine has a record. Chris is basically doing old-school politics, promising everything."

Sweeney's remarks were very interesting because that was the first interview with him since he announced that he has enough votes to become the next state Senate president, the second-most powerful man in the state, and he practiced debating with Corzine. And Sweeney said he was surprised Corzine did so well Thursday night because he did so terribly bad in the practice debates.

Sweeney is likely to do some real gubernatorial debates in four years, Keeley reported.

Fox 29 also asked Drexel University Professor William Rosenberg why a rise in Daggett's poll numbers is more likely to steal votes from Christie than Corzine.

"First of all, for the insider, the reality is that Daggett is a Republican," Rosenberg said. "So he has a lot of connections with Republicans, although the general public probably is unaware of it. Plus, he's never held elected office. … The second thing is that I think many of the messages that he's talking about are more Republican-oriented ideas. So, if you're going to be challenging in a sense the incumbent, and you have ideas which are also refreshing to Republicans, that's where those votes are going to come from."

Later this month, the candidates will square off on Fox 29 and MyFoxPhilly.com. We'll stream the debate live on our Web site on Oct. 16.

The debate will re-air on Fox 29 the next day at 2 p.m.

Fox 29's Thomas Drayton will be there asking the candidates about issues that matter to you.

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