Big Day in NJ Politics

Today was the deadline for filing petitions to run in the June primary. PoliticsNJ has all kinds of information available, including who’s in and who’s out (or might be out). Here are the headlines, but stop by over there for the details:

- Ten candidates have filed nominating petitions to run for Governor
- Bret Shundler will run his own lines in Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Essex, Gloucester, Mercer and Union
- Paul DiGaeatano will run his own line in Essex County
- In Camden County, Bret Schundler will run on a ticket with Freeholder candidate Bill Collins
- Todd Caliguire says he has applied for matching funds
- Doug Forrester may file rival slates in some counties
- James D. Kelly, Jr. of Chester has filed petitions to run in the Democratic primary for Governor

And my personal favorite:

- Candidates for Governor and State Assembly will have until Thursday to file a criminal conviction disclosure statement

Also of interest, PoliticsNJ has kindly posted the vote totals from the county conventions. If you sum up all of the first ballot results, Doug Forrester is the clear leader, but without a clear majority:

Candidate	Total
DOUGLAS FORRESTER	48.93%
BRET SCHUNDLER	19.97%
JOHN MURPHY	12.99%
ROBERT SCHROEDER	9.83%
PAUL DIGAETANO	6.92%
STEVEN LONEGAN	1.05%
TODD CALIGUIRE	0.31%

Of course, there's no guarantee that the voters will follow their county activists & leaders. Witness the 2001 primary, where Schundler beat Bob Franks by nearly 50,000 votes after Franks had most of the county organization lines. Also, the county-by-county support for Forrester isn't really as strong as the above totals would indicate. He only took majorities in three counties on the first ballot, as shown below.

Candidate	Atlantic	Bergen	Camden	Cumberland	Ocean	Salem	Union
FORRESTER	78.57%	19.28%	40.21%	85.48%	21.69%	74.47%	34.43%
SCHUNDLER	21.09%	18.80%	31.75%	12.90%	16.40%	8.51%	17.98%
MURPHY	0.00%	17.96%	23.28%	0.00%	23.81%	2.13%	31.36%
SCHROEDER	0.00%	17.60%	3.17%	1.61%	38.10%	0.00%	14.04%
DIGAETANO	0.00%	22.51%	1.59%	0.00%	0.00%	14.89%	1.32%
LONEGAN	0.34%	2.75%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%	0.88%
CALIGUIRE	0.00%	1.08%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%

Now that the petitions are in, let the games officially begin!