New Jersey gubernatorial election, 1997

November 4, 1997



Candidate	Christine Todd Whitman	Jim McGreevey
Party	Republican	Democratic
Popular vote	1,133,394	1,107,968
Percentage	46.87%	45.82%

Winning percentage by county:

Whitman—60-70%

Whitman—50-60%

Whitman—40-50%

McGreevey—40-50%

McGreevey—50-60%

McGreevey—60-70%

Governor before election

Christine Todd Whitman
Republican

Elected Governor

Christine Todd Whitman
Republican

Elections in New Jersey

Federal government

Presidential elections
1788-89 1792 1796 1800 1804 1808 1812 1816 1820 1824 1828 1832 1836 1840 1844 1848 1852 1856 1860 1864 1868 1872 1876 1880 1884 1888 1892 1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1916 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016
Primary elections
Democratic 2004 2008 Republican 2008 2012
United States Senate elections
1982 1988 1990 1994 1996 2000 2002 2006 2008 2012 2013 2014
Congressional elections
AL (1795) 1798 AL (1808) AL (1810) AL (1814) AL (1821) AL (1828) 2006 5^th 13^th 2008 7^th 2010 2012 10^th 2014 2016

State government

Gubernatorial elections
1925 1928 1931 1934 1937 1940 1943 1946 1949 1953 1957 1961 1965 1969 1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2009 2013 2017
Other State elections
2009 2010 2015

City of Newark

Mayoral Elections
2014

City of Jersey City

Mayoral elections
2001 2004 2005 2009 2013

City of Hoboken

City elections
2005

The New Jersey gubernatorial election of 1997 was a race for Governor of New Jersey. It was held on November 4, 1997. In the Democratic primary state senator and Woodbridge Township mayor James McGreevey defeated pre-primary front-runner Rep. Rob Andrews by 9,993 votes. Polls during the last month of the race showed incumbent Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (R) with only a slim lead. On election night Whitman prevailed over McGreevey by a margin of 26,953 votes, a 1.05% margin. Whitman won 46.87% of the vote, with Democratic nominee James McGreevey receiving 45.82% and Libertarian Murray Sabrin receiving 4.7%.

Democratic primary

Candidates

Jim McGreevey, Mayor of Woodbridge Township and New Jersey State Senator
Rob Andrews, U.S. Representative
Michael Murphy, Morris County Prosecutor
Frank C. Marmo, perennial candidate

Results

Democratic primary results^[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Jim McGreevey	148,153	39.86
	Democratic	Rob Andrews	138,160	37.17
	Democratic	Michael Murphy	79,172	21.30
	Democratic	Frank C. Marmo	6,189	1.67
Total votes			371,674	100

Republican primary

Candidates

Christine Todd Whitman, incumbent Governor of New Jersey

Results

Republican Party primary results^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Christine Todd Whitman (inc.)	147,731	100.00
Total votes			147,731	100.00

General election

Candidates

James McGreevey (D), State Senator and Mayor of Woodbridge
Murray Sabrin (L), Ramapo College professor
Christine Todd Whitman (R), incumbent Governor

Campaign

In June, a 60-second radio ad paid for by the New Jersey Republican Party focused on the 30% income tax cut and 180,000 new jobs. Whitman ads blamed McGreevey for the state's auto insurance rates. The Whitman campaign emphasized the drops in unemployment, violent crime and welfare rolls during her term. Other ads took aim at McGreevey's record on taxes, particularly his support for former Gov. Jim Florio's (D) tax increase. The RNC criticized former Gov. Jim Florio (D) in an ad October, calling his 1990 tax increase a result of electing "liberal Democrats".

In September, McGreevey unveiled two TV ads criticizing Whitman and focusing on property taxes, auto insurance rates, pension bond debts and education standards. The Democratic National Committee also spent $1 million during the home stretch of the campaign on television ads for Democratic candidates statewide.

Polling

Poll source	Date(s) administered	Sample size	Margin of error	Jim McGreevey (D)	Christine Todd Whitman (R)	Murray Sabrin (L)	Other	Undecided
New York Times/CBS News	October 25–29, 1997	1,082	± 3.0%	33%	44%	8%	3%	12%
Quinnipiac College	October 14–20, 1997	1,120	± 2.9%	37%	45%	8%	1%	9%
Quinnipiac College	September 8–13, 1997	865	± 3.3%	37%	49%	-	4%	10%

Issues

In October, a poll found that voters of NJ called auto insurance the most important issue in the campaign, and property taxes second.

Debates

Three debates on October 18, 21 and 24, Whitman, McGreevey and Sabrin traded barbs on their dueling auto insurance plans, property taxes, state spending and the Atlantic City tunnel, a $215 million project for which a private investor gave $55 million.

Results

New Jersey Gubernatorial Election, 1997^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Republican	Christine Todd Whitman (inc.)	1,133,394	46.87%	-2.46%
	Democratic	Jim McGreevey	1,107,968	45.82%	+10.62%
	Libertarian	Murray Sabrin	114,172	4.72%	+4.40%
	Conservative	Richard J. Pezzullo	34,906	1.44%	+1.24%
	Green	Madelyn R. Hoffman	10,703	0.44%
	Independent	Michael Perrone, Jr.	6,805	0.28%
	Socialist Workers	Robert B. Miller	2,816	0.12%	+0.07%
	Socialist	Greg Pason	2,800	0.12%
	Natural Law	Lincoln Norton	2,540	0.11%
	Independent	Nuncie A. Ripa, Jr.	2,240	0.09%
Majority			25,426	1.05%	+0.01%
Turnout			2,418,344
	Republican hold		Swing

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/26/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.