It's Fall! Campaign Time!

Jon Corzine has announced his acceptance of three televised debates and two 'Joint Appearances" as follows:

Tuesday, September 20th NJN, Gannett, Philadelphia Inquirer, NJ State Chamber of Commerce, NJ State League of Municipalities, Asian Indian Chamber of Commerce, Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, African American Chamber of Commerce.

Tuesday, October 18th New Jersey League of Women Voters, WABC-WPVI, Univision, WHYY-FM

Tuesday, October 11th Joint Editorial Board, Gannett New Jersey newspapers

Tuesday, October 11th New Jersey 101.5 FM Radio Candidates Forum

Saturday, November 5th WNBC News Forum with Gabe Pressman

There will be 5 other joint appearances and forums-no dates yet.

In the press release, Campaign Director Steve DeMicco said “With these series of events, we have not only agreed to the two debates sanctioned by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, but also to eight additional events. We hope we can count on Doug Forrester to attend these important events so that the voters of New Jersey are exposed to a wide-ranging discussion of the issues crucial to our state and its people.”

Well, so much for the Forrester camp's assertion that Jon Corzine was "ducking" him and wanted no more than one tv/one radio debate, and none after Oct. 15. At least Doug didn't pull the old NJ GOP trick of insisting there be one debate in every county in NJ, as he did against Lautenberg after Franks tried it against Corzine when running for senate. Twenty-one debates is just plain silly but 3-5 is reasonable, and most of NJ should be able to watch or hear a few if not all of them.

And with that, the fall campaign season is officially underway, this Tuesday after Labor Day. The ad war will be coming on strong now, not just the occasional TV and radio spots. Yes, they've been campaigning for months but it really goes into high gear in the fall. I admit, right now it seems kind of exciting and I'm eager for the debates and the heavy campaigning to start. (Remind me I said that around Halloween when I'm ready to cancel my TV & newspaper and burn the radio rather than suffer through another campaign ad. )

(Cross-posted at Blanton's and Ashton's- What's the noble cause?)