Rebovich gives insight on upcoming election

By Nick Ballasy

With just two weeks left before the New Jersey gubernatorial election, Dr. David Rebovich, chair of the political science department, provided some insight into the race at the lunchbox series on Wednesday.

As Rebovich walked to the podium, he looked out over the half-full BLC Theater and said, “This will probably be the turnout on election day.” The audience, mostly filled with members of the community, burst into laughter.

In the beginning of the speech, he gave numbers from all the recent polls conducted with likely voters. Rebovich explained that most polls showed New Jerseyans do not really like the choices they have but are leaning toward their party lines.

Sen. Jon Corzine is ahead by six to eight percent in most polls. Rebovich also mentioned that both candidates have spent a combined $50 million on their campaigns. He specifically pointed out that Corzine is now spending $3 million a week but has yet to break the 50 percent mark.

“You might as well jump into Centennial Lake if you spend all that money and still can’t get half the public to like you,” he joked. “All jokes aside, I think the turn out is going to be low.”

He talked about how the campaigns have mostly been about property taxes and government corruption. They have also been filled with negative ads which he says will continue.

“If you’re [Doug] Forrester, you have to go negative at this point,” he said. “The mistake the Forrester camp made early on was they allowed Forrester to get backed into a corner and painted as a social or fiscal conservative by the Democrats.”

Metta Kahill of Lawrenceville said she hasn’t really been impressed with either candidate, as many of the recent polls have showed. She still enjoyed Rebovich’s speech.

“He did a good job in presenting a balanced view,” she said. “His commentary on thecampaigns the candidates are running was accurate and helpful.”