New Jersey is unexpected turf for a Republican comeback, but Chris Christie's GOP primary victory Tuesday sets him up with a good chance to topple Governor Jon Corzine in one of this year's few big elections.
The Governor's approval rating hovers below 40%, as he pays the price for a decade of runaway liberal governance. Voters elected the former Goldman Sachs CEO after he promised to get the state's finances in order, but spending, taxes and debt all keep rising. According to the Tax Foundation, New Jersey had the highest local-state tax burden in the country last year, and it was the "least business-friendly" state in the country. That hostility has sent businesses and individuals running for the border, further eroding the tax base.
Enter Mr. Christie, who made his reputation putting away the state's many political crooks.
But to win in November he'll need a reform agenda that sharpens the economic contrast with Mr. Corzine and gives him leverage to clean up the tax robbers in Trenton if he does win. He'll need a reform mandate, or the legislature will tie him down like Gulliver.
Mr. Christie shrugged off primary opponent Steve Lonegan's proposal to replace the state's progressive income tax with a flat tax, but he'll need something nearly as bold. He can also differentiate himself on education, where state spending per pupil is among the highest in the country, but achievement is dismal and unions run the show.
Aware of his unpopularity, Mr. Corzine knows he can only win if he trashes Mr. Christie. But a sign of his desperation is that he's (still) trying to blame the state's problems on George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. If New Jersey voters buy that one, they deserve to get more of the tax-and-spend bankruptcy they've been getting.
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