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TagsBY TOM HESTER SR.
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
New Jersey's three candidates for lieutenant governor met in what will be their only debate of the campaign Thursday night and the exchange came across as more spirited than the first meeting of the three gubernatorial candidates held last week.
In a 90-minute debate before a large and partisan audience at Monmouth University in West Long Branch that would interrupt the candidates with boos, cheers and applause, Democrat Loretta Weinberg appeared as the most outspoken, Kim Guadagno provided more insight into the potential policies of a Republican administration, and Independent Frank Esposito stuck to the positions that earned his running mate Chris Daggett praise after last week's gubernatorial debate.
The only tense moments came when Weinberg, a Bergen County state senator, twice told Guadagno to quit making up facts, once when the candidates were debating highway funding, the other when they were discussing the role of charter schools.
"You're entitled to you own opinion,'' Weinberg said to Guadagno, "but not your own set of facts.''One of the trio will be carried into office by the winning gubernatorial candidate and serve as the state's first lieutenant governor and be first in line to the governor's chair should it become vacant.
While Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie has been accused of being vague on how he would cut property taxes, Guadagno, the Monmouth County sheriff, said, that should the Republicans win the governor‘s office, "Chris and I will start at the bottom of the budget and work our way up. The voters will be sending two former federal prosecutors to Trenton and we will turn on the lights and turn over every rock until we cut spending. We will cut taxes and we will do it from the top. In the first 90 days I'm in office, I will go through the state statutes and find the hundreds of thousands of dollars in (local) mandates and examine COAH (affordable housing mandates).''
Guadagno said she would attempt to determine why $185 million was expended by the state for health coverage for people who were not eligible or examine what became of $600,000 in emergency management funds allotted to the Waterfront Commission.
Weinberg stressed that Gov. Jon Corzine solved an $8 billion 2009-10 budget deficit, including cutting $4 billion in state spending, and preserved property tax rebates for seniors, the disabled and homeowners who earn $75,000 or less annually.
She said it is the myriad of hundreds of school districts, municipal and county governments and police departments that contribute most to big property taxes and that a Corzine administration would have to continue to stress shared public services and government consolidation in a second term.
Twice Weinberg mentioned that consideration should be given to examining the roles of local and county police and sheriff‘s officers.
Esposito, a Kean University dean, stuck with Daggett's plan to provide 25 percent property tax cuts for all homeowners and expand the sales tax on luxury purchases. Like Daggett, he did not rule out the possibility of hiking the gas tax to finance the state's nearly bankrupt highway repair fund.
The candidates were given more time to answer questions offered by the public than the gubernatorial hopefuls were given at their debate.
Besides property taxes, and highway funding, they debated negative campaigning, corruption, how they differ from their running mates, health care insurance, immigration policies, home rule and public education and the role of charter schools.
Guadagno described politics in New Jersey as a "blood sport'' and Weinberg used a question about negative campaigning to raise the issue of Christie getting into an auto accident as U.S. attorney for New Jersey. She said a negative campaign helps bring out the "kind of character'' of a candidate. "How they face up to things when things go wrong. How they react when they get into an accident. I‘m not talking about anybody‘s driving record. I‘m talking about how someone faces up to responsibility. How do I do it? I say, ‘Give me the ticket.'''
The senator's comment was met with boos from Republicans in the audience.
At one point, New Jersey Radio 101.5 FM news director, a debate co-moderator asked Weinberg if a new Corzine campaign TV ad is intentionally trying to depict Christie as overweight. "Do you think Chris Christie is fat?,'' he asked.
Weinberg deflected the question, responding, I don't think too many of the people in this race would make it into the finals of ‘The Bachelorette' or ‘The Bachelor' programs,'' a reference to two TV shows.
The senator's comment was met with boos from Republicans in the audience.
On the issue of public corruption, Guadagno said if Christie is elected, the two highest positions in the state government would be held by two former federal prosecutors. Referring to Christie‘s record as a federal prosecutor, she said, "Chris Christie, do I need to tell anybody attacked the problem. One hundred and thirty times in the last seven years we have seen Republicans and Democrats go to jail. That is unprecedented."
Weinbereg said, "I have a long history of standing up to corruption, I won't take a backseat to nobody on that. '' She said that she and Corzine will "stand up to any wrongdoing we see in the administration or in the party.‘'
Esposito said the issue is not how many people go to jail. "We need a strong code of ethics for public officials,'' he said. "If they violate the ethics code, run them out of office. If they commit a crime, they go to jail, and they lose their pension.''
Democratic attacks on Christie's and Guadagno's positions on health insurance coverage for mammograms for women have apparently played a major role in costing them the wide lead they once held over Corzine and Weinberg.
Guadagno insisted Christie has no plan to eliminate health coverage for mammograms, 48-hour hospital stays for women who have given birth or autism care. She called the Democratic attacks lies and charged, "Jon Corzine is trying to scare women away from voting for Chris Christie.''
The gubernatorial candidate will debate Oct. 18 at William Paterson University and on Oct. 22 on WBGO radio.