Radio Debate wrap-up

Last night, Doug Forrester faced off with Senator Jon Corzine in a radio debate. If you missed it, it's available here. It's a little long, over 1 1/2 hours, so it's broken into 5 parts on the site. It's worth the time, though.

Sen. Corzine did much better than in the NJN debate, where he looked tired and had a few missteps. He got more involved in explaining some of his plans. Once again, Forrester sounded polished and stayed on his message, whether or not it was relevant to the question.

A good example of how this worked was brought out early in the program. On a question about Kramer Hill in Camden and eminent domain abuse, Corzine explained his position, then Forrester stuck to his talking point by bringing up Petty's Island, the brownfield island in Pennsauken, by stating it has the same developer as Kramer Hill and Corzine "won't stand up with him" against eminent domain abuse. Corzine responded stating unequivocally that eminent domain is NOT the issue with Petty's Island, that's an issue about making polluters pay for their environmental damage, and the two issues are separate. Corzine explained his plans, Forrester stuck to his message.

That's been the theme for this campaign, hasn't it? Corzine has plans for the future, but Forrester has campaign talking points.

Forrester made the mistake later on of challenging Corzine on financial plans for the state's future with the pension plans and investments. Corzine's answer may have gone a bit into detail for most, but really, why would you challenge the former CEO of a Goldman Sachs on financial issues? The Senator had a new proposal about securitizing the revenues of the toll roads in our state, which will be interesting to read.

I listened to the debate last night in New Brunswick, in the company of The One True Tami, GD Frogsdong, and Kire, where Al Franken was doing live commentary. He was great, of course. He noted that Forrester incorporated his company in DC to avoid NJ taxes, but then has the nerve to run for governor of Our Fair State while touting tax reform.

Side note- I am no fan of NJ 101.whine. They spend a lot of time distorting the issues and making people angry, which brings in listeners and ad revenues but simply creates angry, misinformed people. But boy, I was happy with Eric Scott's performance as moderator. He kept the answers on track and when the candidates didn't answer a question, he called them on it. He did a great job.