Failed New jersey Governor Bid Blamed On Bush

Ah the finger pointed season is upon us. Just as the California Republicans a few months ago wer eupset that Bush had come into the state to raise money, the N.J Republican who lost his bid for governor has layed the blame at the feet of Bush. Citing his low approval scores he claims it was impossible to defeat his opponent. This may make for an interesting election season. Perhaps a good Republican strategy would be to have Bush endorse some Democrats

NEWARK, N.J. - The Republican who lost New Jersey's bitter gubernatorial race said he would have won had President Bush's popularity not been sagging.

Doug Forrester, who lost to Democrat Jon Corzine by about 9 percentage points last week, told The Sunday Star-Ledger of Newark that dissatisfaction with Bush made it impossible for him to overcome the Democrats' advantages.

"If Bush's numbers were where they were a year ago, or even six months ago, I think we would have won on Tuesday," Forrester said.

Bush's approval rating is at the lowest of his presidency and he faces a host of difficulties, including the war in Iraq, the response to Hurricane Katrina, soaring fuel prices and the CIA leak investigation.
Point the Blame finger

Bush's popularity levels certainly didn't help, but I doubt they were responsible for Corzine's win. I mean New jersey has been a pretty reliable blue state for a while now. Plus, I don't think voters liked the Forrester ads that used Corzine's ex-wife statements saying he would betray NJ like he betrayed his family.

Living in NJ, I think the nastiness of the campaign on both sides turned a lot of people off. I was all set to vote for Forrester (I tend to lean Dem since Bush but Corzine is a gun control extremist), but I couldn't vote for either in good conscience as they both ran such vicious campaigns.

I'll tell you this though, Bush didn't do Forrester any favors. At my new job I am amazed at the depth of the dislike for Bush and the War in Iraq. And these are mostly young lower middle class kids, not "liberal elites" by any stretch of the imagination. Even the conservatives I know around here don't have much use for Bush. Mainly because of his "borrow and spend" fiscal policies, but also because a lot of them are now convinced Iraq was a dumb idea - can't say I've never said "I told you so" either

[edit on 11/15/05 by xmotex]

Bush didn't make him loose that office.
He lost it himself. The campaign was NASTY.
We live in Delaware and the stench of
that campaign floated across the
Delaware River to our side .... yuk!

I'll have to take the word of the people here who know about the campaign. I do not.

But I do understand the guy's point. He's probably right. If Bush hadn't tainted the Republican party so badly, the guy may have won. I don't know that he's 'blaming' Bush, more like stating a hypothesis.

Doug Forrester, who lost to Democrat Jon Corzine by about 9 percentage points last week
...
Only about 20 percent of all voters surveyed cited opposition to Bush as a reason for their vote in the governor's race.

20% would have won it for him...

People are tired of the Republican Rule and BushCo has a whole lot to do with that.