Read PolitickerNJ.com's Year End Review

WORST CAMPAIGNS
OF THE YEAR
1. Chris Daggett for Governor
The independent
gubernatorial campaign of
Christopher Daggett can be
summed up in two words:
five percent. Despite all the
hype, the matching funds,
the Star-Ledger
endorsement, the fact that
he was a good driver, the
Codey-wannabee one-liners
in the debate, the arrogant indignation, the
massive ego, and the presence of Jesse Ventura’s
media consultant, Daggett for Governor was a
poorly run, ineffective, bad campaign. Daggett
never figured out that his poll numbers were soft,
that voters rarely vote for third party candidates.
He railed against process issues and that tried to
use some of them – like bad ballot position – to
his advantage. He got outmaneuvered on a key
environmental endorsement, and was unable to
find anyone with gravitas beyond John Farmer Sr.
to praise him. The campaign relied on some cute
TV ads that were not as good as the ones Bill
Hillsman created for Ventura and Paul Wellstone,
and didn’t make any substantial effort to target
specific voters. Daggett ends his not so excellent
2009 adventure having lost a bunch of his
Republican friends, who viewed his candidacy and
his campaign as a waste of time.
2. Randal Pinkett for Lt. Governor
The idea of a former reality
TV star running for Lt.
Governor was exactly why
some Democrats viewed Jon
Corzine as politically tone
deaf. But Pinkett didn’t
know it was a trial balloon,
and didn’t have the political
experience to understand
that you don’t publicly run
for a running mate position.
Democratic leaders and
newspaper editorials reacted
poorly to Pinkett’s bid, especially after an op-ed
and press conference made Corzine look bad.
3. Joan Voss and Connie Wagner for State
Assembly
The two Democratic
Assemblywomen won a
Democratic district despite a
bad campaign marked by an
over-the-top mailer
attacking two unknown
Republicans for promulgating pornography and
putting guns near schools. The faulty opposition
research was eclipsed only by the bad judgment
of the mailer, which cost Voss and Wagner The
Record’s endorsement and some of their
reputation.
4. Joe Caruso and Anthony Rottino for State
Assembly
The two Republicans challenged
incumbents David Russo and
Scott Rumana in the primary
and ran a campaign that
seemed like Todd Caliguire Part
II. It was mean spirited and
poorly executed, and the only
real impact it had was the
indictment of their political
consultant for violation of the
Fair Campaign Practices Act.
5. Jun Choi for Mayor of Edison
The re-election campaign of
another self-proclaimed
Democratic rising star failed to
give voters any reason why he
deserved a second term. It
most mostly stuff like this:
“Toni the Phony’s House of
Bologna… You can get any
sandwich you like as long as
it’s full of bologna… Just like
Toni the Phony.”
6. Beth Mason for Mayor of Hoboken
The Councilwoman ran twice
for Mayor in 2009 – the May
election (she didn’t make the
runoff) and the November
special. She spent nearly $1
million running for office and it
seems as though she made no
impact at all.
7. Arthur Marchand and George Shivery for
State Assembly
Blame this lost opportunity
on the state GOP, who didn’t
get their act together in
defense of their handpicked
candidates. Could
Marchand, the former
Cumberland Surrogate and
Prosecutor, have beaten
Celeste Riley in a race she
won by just 1,300 votes?
Maybe, but we’ll never know.
8. Doug Cabana for State
Assembly
In a race between two
brothers-in-law, the Morris
County Freeholder lost his
second bid for the GOP
Assembly nomination,
despite endorsements from
most of the Republican
establishment and a decent
amount of money. He still
doesn’t get it.
9. Chris Calabrese for
Bergen County Freeholder
It’s got to kill Chris
Calabrese that the Bergen
GOP won two Freeholder
seats and he would probably
have been one of them if not
for a stupid flyer that
bragged about the total
number of votes he got in
2008 (a presidential year)
that made other GOP
candidates look bad. This was a stupid mistake .
10. Craig Stanley for State Assembly
The former five-term
Assemblyman got crushed in
his second consecutive
Democratic primary after he
couldn’t convince family
member Phil Thigpen to give
him the line. The support of
the Payne machine couldn’t
help a bad campaign.
CORRUPTIONGATE 2009
“One-month Pete. That’s the moniker that
should stick to Peter Cammarano, the former
mayor of Hoboken. It’s not as poetic as Anne of
the Thousands Days. But Anne Boleyn lost her
head. One-Month Pete just lost office.”
― The Record’s Alfred Doblin (8/4/09)
“I think about how close to evil I came.”
― Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville), who says
he turned down legal work offered by Assemblyman Harvey
Smith (D-Jersey City) on behalf of Solomon Dwek. (8/3/09)