With about eight months left before New Jersey voters will determine who will govern the state, some have said Democratic leaders haven’t been very enthusiastic about Sen. Barbara Buono’s candidacy. But Monmouth County Democratic Party Chairman Vin Gopal told NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider that more than 250 elected officials in his county have endorsed Buono and he believes she can defeat Gov. Chris Christie in November once the voting public gets to know her and her platform.
Gopal said he has seen a lot of enthusiasm for Buono as a candidate with 250 elected officials and party leaders in Monmouth County publicly endorsing her and hundreds attending her kickoff event. He said some don’t know Buono well enough yet, but that will change over the next couple of months.
“I think you’re going to see the enthusiasm gap grow as she gets out there,” Gopal said. “Her speeches are firing people up and I think she’s going to be a great candidate and she has a great chance of beating Chris Christie.”
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One Democrat who would disagree is Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long. Last week, she publicly endorsed Christie for governor. But Gopal said Long is the exception in his county. He also said he’s never seen Long at a Democratic event in his tenure as chair. “I spoke to our recent Democratic elects. They don’t see her around much so I think her exposure with Gov. Christie’s probably greater than it is with our county party,” he said.
During the recent State of the County address in Essex County, Buono was absent while many other prominent Democrats were in attendance. Gopal said he doesn’t believe it was a mistake on her part, saying since she has several events per day all over the state, she likely had other obligations.
Raising money has been a hot topic during the campaign since Christie has been able to fund-raise throughout the country for his bid. Gopal said Buono will be able to raise enough money to run an effective campaign. “She’s already hit matching funds. The reality is the governor has a lot of special interest money from all over the country. He’s out of the state every day raising money. And he’s going to outspend the Democratic Party,” he said. “But she’s going to have more than enough money to get her message out and connect with voters that she’s the better choice in November.”
According to Gopal, Buono is currently getting her infrastructure together since she’s only been the presumptive nominee for about two weeks. He anticipates the campaign will be aggressive and point out the flaws in Christie’s governing.
“You’re going to see a very aggressive field and grassroots campaign. At the end of the day, this is a governor with the second highest foreclosure rate in the country, fourth highest unemployment rate in the country — 10 percent unemployment — highest property taxes we’ve seen in quite some time. He’s going to have to answer to this,” Gopal said. “She’s building an organization right now at the grassroots that’s going to address all these issues and really give voters a choice in November.”
Buono’s background as an individual who worked her way through college and law school contrasts with Christie, “who opposes raising minimum wage, that won’t sign a marriage equality bill, that has cut women’s health care funding, that supports benefits for millionaires,” according to Gopal.
While some have written off the election, Gopal said Buono still has eight months to get her message out. “She’s going to be on TV, she’s going to be on the radio and there’s going to be a massive grassroots operation,” he said. “And as voters become more familiar with her, which they’re not right now, this is going to be a much closer race.”
Poll numbers have shown Christie with a commanding 40-point lead, but Gopal said that’s only because voters don’t know all about Buono yet. He pointed out that on other questions in the poll, Christie didn’t do as well with just 42 percent approving of his job on the economy and 43 percent agreeing with his work with taxes. Gopal conceded that the governor did a great job with Hurricane Sandy, but stressed that there are many other issues.
“He needs to answer why he opposes increasing the minimum wage — a living wage — which 75 percent of people in that same poll support,” Gopal said. “There’s a lot of issues at the table here.”
Gopal said he’s convinced that Buono will be the next governor of New Jersey and will have a lot of people working throughout the state to make sure it happens.
“These polls are going to tighten. The reason Chris Christie’s up right now is because people don’t know her,” Gopal said. “She’s not as well known as Cory Booker or Dick Codey or some of those names, but she will get active. She’s over matching funds, she’s going to have over a million dollars. She’ll raise a competitive amount of money to really get her message out there and make a compelling case to New Jersey voters.”