2005 New Jersey gubernatorial election
The 2005 New Jersey gubernatorial election was a race to determine the Governor of New Jersey. It was held on November 8, 2005. Democratic Governor Richard Codey, who replaced Governor Jim McGreevey in 2004 after his resignation, did not run for election for a full term of office.
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Corzine: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% Forrester: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% | |||||||||||||||||
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Elections in New Jersey |
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The primary election was held on June 7, 2005. U.S. Senator Jon Corzine won the Democratic nomination without serious opposition. Former West Windsor Mayor Doug Forrester received the Republican nomination with a plurality of 36%. Corzine defeated Forrester in the general election. New Jersey is reliably Democratic at the federal level, but this was the first time since 1977 in which Democrats won more than one consecutive gubernatorial election in the state. This was the first time since 1965 that a Democrat won a gubernatorial race without Ocean County, and the first since 1961 that they did so without Monmouth County.
The 2005 general election also saw a public referendum question on the ballot for the voters to decide whether to create a position of lieutenant governor, alter the state's order of succession, and whether the state's first lieutenant governor would be chosen in the subsequent gubernatorial election held in 2009.[1][2] The question passed by a tally of 836,134 votes (56.1%) to 655,333 (43.9%).[3] To date, this is the most recent election that Salem County voted for the Democratic candidate in a gubernatorial race.
Democratic primary
Nominee
- Jon Corzine, U.S. Senator[4]
Eliminated in primary
- James D. Kelly Jr., telecommunications company employee[5]
- Francis X. Tenaglio, former Pennsylvania State Representative
Declined
- Richard Codey, incumbent Governor and president of the New Jersey Senate
Results
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Jon S. Corzine | 207,670 | 88.08 | |
Democratic | James D. Kelly, Jr. | 19,512 | 8.28 | |
Democratic | Francis X. Tenaglio | 8,596 | 3.65 | |
Total votes | 235,778 | 100.00 |
Republican primary
Nominee
- Doug Forrester, former Mayor of West Windsor and nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2002
Eliminated in Primary
- Todd Caliguire, Bergen County Freeholder
- Paul DiGaetano, Assemblyman from Nutley
- Steve Lonegan, Mayor of Bogota
- John J. Murphy, Morris County Freeholder and former Mayor of Morris Township
- Bob Schroeder, Washington Township Councilman
- Bret Schundler, former Mayor of Jersey City and nominee for Governor in 2001
Declined
Results
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Doug Forrester | 108,941 | 36.01 | |
Republican | Bret Schundler | 94,417 | 31.21 | |
Republican | John J. Murphy | 33,800 | 11.17 | |
Republican | Steve Lonegan | 24,433 | 8.08 | |
Republican | Robert Schroeder | 16,763 | 5.54 | |
Republican | Paul DiGaetano | 16,684 | 5.52 | |
Republican | Todd Caliguire | 7,463 | 2.47 | |
Total votes | 302,501 | 100.00 |
General election
Candidates
- Wesley Bell, former mayor of Stafford Township (Independent)
- Hector Castillo, physician and candidate for mayor of Paterson in 2002 (Independent)
- Jon Corzine, U.S. Senator (Democratic)
- Ed Forchion, Candidate for U.S. Representative in New Jersey's 3rd congressional district in 2004 (Marijuana)
- Doug Forrester, businessman, nominee for U.S. Senate in 2002, and former Mayor of West Windsor (Republican)
- Angela Lariscy, candidate for U.S. Representative in New Jersey's 13th congressional district in 2004 (Socialist Workers)
- Michael Latigona, registered nurse and EMT from Marlton (Independent)
- Jeffrey Pawlowski, former Sayreville borough councilman (Libertarian)
- Constantino Rozzo, candidate for U.S. Representative in New Jersey's 2nd congressional district in 2004 (Socialist)
- Matthew Thieke, computer software analyst and resident of Maple Shade (Green)
Debates
The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission declared that the four candidates would be included in the official gubernatorial debates to be aired on NJN. They included Jeffrey Pawlowski and Hector Castillo.
- Complete video of debate, September 20, 2005
- Complete video of debate, October 18, 2005
- Complete video of debate, November 5, 2005
Predictions
Source | Ranking | As of |
---|---|---|
Sabato's Crystal Ball[10] | Likely D | October 25, 2005 |
Polling
Source | Date | Jon Corzine (D) |
Doug Forrester (R) |
Other | Undecided |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rasmussen | June 8, 2005 | 47% | 40% | 5% | 8% |
Rutgers | June 12, 2005 | 43% | 33% | – | – |
Quinnipiac | June 15, 2005 | 47% | 37% | – | – |
Rasmussen | July 15, 2005 | 50% | 38% | 4% | 8% |
Strategic Vision | July 19, 2005 | 48% | 40% | – | – |
Fairleigh Dickinson-PublicMind | July 21, 2005 | 47% | 34% | – | – |
Rasmussen | August 7, 2005 | 45% | 37% | 5% | – |
Quinnipiac | August 10, 2005 | 50% | 40% | – | – |
Strategic Vision | August 18, 2005 | 50% | 40% | – | – |
Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers | September 12, 2005 | 48% | 28% | – | – |
Strategic Vision | September 16, 2005 | 47% | 36% | – | – |
Rasmussen | September 19, 2005 | 47% | 36% | 5% | – |
Fairleigh-Dickinson | September 26, 2005 | 48% | 38% | 4% | 10% |
Monmouth University | September 28, 2005 | 46% | 38% | – | – |
Quinnipiac | September 28, 2005 | 48% | 44% | – | – |
Rasmussen Archived 2005-10-18 at the Wayback Machine | October 6, 2005 | 45% | 38% | 5% | – |
Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers | October 3–6, 2005 | 44% | 37% | – | – |
Marist | October 10, 2005 | 44% | 43% | – | – |
Survey USA | October 11, 2005 | 49% | 41% | 5% | 5% |
Strategic Vision | October 13, 2005 | 46% | 40% | – | – |
Quinnipiac | October 19, 2005 | 50% | 43% | – | – |
Rasmussen Archived 2005-12-27 at the Wayback Machine | October 20, 2005 | 49% | 40% | 3% | – |
Survey USA | October 25, 2005 | 50% | 41% | 7% | 3% |
Strategic Vision | November 2, 2005 | 48% | 42% | – | – |
Fairleigh-Dickinson | November 2, 2005 | 44% | 40% | 3% | 13% |
Quinnipiac | November 2, 2005 | 50% | 38% | – | – |
Marist College | November 4, 2005 | 51% | 41% | – | – |
Monmouth University | November 4, 2005 | 47% | 38% | – | – |
Rasmussen | November 6, 2005 | 44% | 39% | 5% | 12% |
Quinnipiac | November 7, 2005 | 52% | 45% | – | – |
Survey USA | November 7, 2005 | 50% | 44% | 5% | 2% |
Results
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Jon Corzine | 1,224,551 | 53.47% | 2.96 | |
Republican | Doug Forrester | 985,271 | 43.02% | 1.34 | |
Independent | Hector Castillo | 29,452 | 1.29% | N/A | |
Libertarian | Jeffrey Pawlowski | 15,417 | 0.67% | 0.46 | |
Green | Matthew Thieke | 12,315 | 0.54% | 0.26 | |
Legalize Marijuana | Edward Forchion | 9,137 | 0.40% | N/A | |
Independent | Michael Latigona | 5,169 | 0.23% | ||
Independent | Wesley Bell | 4,178 | 0.18% | N/A | |
Socialist Workers | Angela Lariscy | 2,531 | 0.11% | 0.06 | |
Socialist | Constantino Rozzo | 2,078 | 0.09% | 0.02 | |
Majority | 239,280 | 10.45% | -4.31% | ||
Turnout | 2,290,099 | ||||
Democratic hold | Swing | ||||
- Results by county[11]
County | Corzine votes | Corzine % | Forrester votes | Forrester % | Other votes | Other % |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Atlantic | 34,539 | 53.3% | 28,004 | 43.2% | 2,238 | 3.5% |
Bergen | 142,319 | 55.6% | 108,017 | 42.2% | 5,683 | 2.2% |
Burlington | 64,421 | 50.5% | 57,908 | 45.4% | 5,203 | 4.1% |
Camden | 76,955 | 60.4% | 45,079 | 35.4% | 5,458 | 4.3% |
Cape May | 14,375 | 45.2% | 16,179 | 50.9% | 1,243 | 3.9% |
Cumberland | 18,580 | 57.2% | 12,692 | 39.0% | 1,231 | 3.8% |
Essex | 131,312 | 72.7% | 45,789 | 25.4% | 3,456 | 1.9% |
Gloucester | 41,128 | 53.2% | 33,225 | 43.0% | 3,004 | 3.9% |
Hudson | 87,409 | 75.4% | 25,769 | 22.2% | 2,691 | 2.3% |
Hunterdon | 15,004 | 33.6% | 27,521 | 61.6% | 2,179 | 4.9% |
Mercer | 56,592 | 57.1% | 38,871 | 39.2% | 3,596 | 3.6% |
Middlesex | 107,176 | 56.0% | 75,021 | 39.2% | 9,085 | 4.7% |
Monmouth | 85,187 | 43.8% | 101,085 | 51.9% | 8,376 | 4.3% |
Morris | 60,986 | 41.3% | 82,550 | 56.0% | 3,997 | 2.7% |
Ocean | 71,953 | 41.6% | 93,693 | 54.2% | 7,242 | 4.2% |
Passaic | 61,803 | 57.9% | 41,532 | 38.9% | 3,413 | 3.2% |
Salem | 10,057 | 48.6% | 9,608 | 46.5% | 1,008 | 4.9% |
Somerset | 40,459 | 43.3% | 49,406 | 52.8% | 3,661 | 3.9% |
Sussex | 14,854 | 35.1% | 25,283 | 59.7% | 2,182 | 5.2% |
Union | 77,982 | 59.2% | 50,036 | 38.0% | 3,677 | 2.8% |
Warren | 11,460 | 36.8% | 18,003 | 57.9% | 1,654 | 5.3% |
Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican
- Monmouth (largest municipality: Middletown Township)
- Ocean (largest municipality: Lakewood)
See also
References
- Mansnerus, Laura. "On Politics: The Advantage of Having A Lieutenant Governor" in The New York Times (March 27, 2005). Retrieved August 30, 2013.
- New Jersey State Legislature. Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 2 (SCR2): "A Concurrent Resolution proposing to amend Articles II, IV, V, and XI of the Constitution of the State of New Jersey" Archived 2013-09-21 at the Wayback Machine (2004) and Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 100 (ACR100): "A Concurrent Resolution proposing to amend Articles II, IV, V and XI of the Constitution of the State of New Jersey" Archived 2013-09-21 at the Wayback Machine (2005). Retrieved 30 August 2013. Note that The New Jersey State Legislature doesn't provide distinct web addresses for its transactions on specific bills, however, at http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/BillView.asp Archived 2013-09-13 at the Wayback Machine click on "Bills 2004–2005" and search for ACR100 and SCR2 for these bills, vote tallies and historical information regarding their passage.
- New Jersey Division of Elections (New Jersey Department of State). "Official List Ballot Questions Tally For November 2005 General Election" Archived 2013-11-12 at the Wayback Machine (certified 16 December 2005). Retrieved 30 August 2013.
- Kornacki, Steve. "Exit everyman: How the Jersey Democratic bosses destroyed Dick Codey and unleashed Chris Christie" in "Politico" (January 28, 2013). Retrieved April 19, 2022
- "James D. Kelly Jr." in "Our Campaigns". Retrieved April 19, 2022
- http://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/election-results/05_primary_official_results-gov.pdf
- Shears, Ian T. (September 8, 2004). "Christie's brother emerges as a major GOP fund-raiser". The Jersey Journal.
- "Corzine to announce bid for governor". The Jersey Journal. November 26, 2004.
- "Candidates for Governor" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 20, 2012. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
- "The 2005 Off-Off-Year Elections: Hardfast Harbinger or Harmless Happenstance? | Sabato's Crystal Ball".
- "Official List Candidates for Governor For November 2005 General Election" (PDF). New Jersey Secretary of State. December 16, 2005. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
External links
- Candidates