The prospect of American voters’ first electoral verdict on his Democratic administration prompted Barack Obama to throw himself into a whistle-stop tour of New Jersey on Sunday to plead for support in a bitter struggle for re-election by an unpopular governor.
Obama appeared at two campaign rallies in support of Jon Corzine, a former chief executive of the Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs who is battling for a second term as Democratic governor of the usually solidly ”blue” state of New Jersey.
Appealing to a crowd of 5 500 people in the city of Camden, the US president said Corzine, who is in trouble over the dismal condition of the state’s economy, was an important partner in helping the White House to deliver on its programme.
”He’s one of the best partners I have in the White House. We work together,” said Obama. ”We know our work is far from over.”
Polls show Corzine in a statistical dead heat with his Republican rival, Chris Christie, after a bitter campaign which has featured accusations of ethical violations and television advertisements by Democrats that zeroed in on Christie’s rotund physique.
Squeezing the most out of his personal popularity, Obama has made five appearances in support of Corzine, anxious to secure a victory at the ballot box on Tuesday when the Democrats are heading for defeat in a battle for governor in another populous state, Virginia.
The votes are the first large-scale opportunity to gauge sentiment at the ballot box since Obama moved into the White House in January. There is concern in Democratic circles that the results could be disappointing, with Obama’s plans for healthcare reform proving divisive and mounting frustration over delays in delivery on other campaign promises.
”I think Republicans are energised everywhere because anger is a better motivator than approval of the party in power,” said Dave Wasserman, a political analyst at the non-partisan Cook Political Report.
Keen to avoid a clean sweep of defeats, Obama followed his Camden rally with a second appearance before 11 000 people in Newark on Sunday night. A poll released on Sunday showed Corzine trailing Christie by 42% to 43% with an independent, Chris Daggett, in double figures.
New Jersey has been badly hit by falling house prices and by the recession, but the White House incumbent urged voters not to blame Corzine for financial ills.
”It wasn’t a consequence of Obama policies or Corzine policies that we went into this hole,” said Obama. ”There seems to be some selective memory going on here.”
Corzine, a multimillionaire from his years in investment banking, has spent more than $23-million on campaigning, twice as much as his rival, including a blizzard of negative advertisements on television.
One set of Democratic attack ads accused Corzine’s challenger of ”throwing his weight around” while serving as a public prosecutor to get out of paying traffic tickets. The voiceover accompanied unflattering footage of the Republican’s girth and was widely interpreted as a comment on Christie’s physical condition.
The picture looks grim for Democrats elsewhere. Although Obama beat his presidential rival John McCain in Virginia last year, the state’s Democratic candidate for governor, Creigh Deeds is trailing a Republican contender by between 13 and 18 points in the polls and looks set to lose.
In a lower key race for a Congressional district in upstate New York, a moderate Republican candidate dropped out at the last minute this week following criticism from figures including Sarah Palin that she was too liberal on issues such as gay marriage and abortion — a sign that Republicans continue to struggle for unity.
Also on Tuesday, voters in New York City will choose a mayor with overwhelming expectations that billionaire Michael Bloomberg will comfortably win a third term. Bloomberg controversially pushed for a change in the law to end rules limiting the city’s mayors to two terms in office. – guardian.co.uk