Jun 1, 2009 8:15 pm US/Eastern
NJ Candidates Excited For Election Returns
TRENTON (CBS) ―
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New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine (file)
CBS
New Jersey voters Tuesday are choosing a Republican to challenge Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in the fall. The turnout has been light in the state primary as polls set to close at 8 p.m., while the focus remains on the two Republican rivals and which one will face Corzine.
Steve Lonegan says he's fighting for the heart and soul of the Republican party. The former mayor of Bogota, who is pro-life and once tried to make English the official language of his town, wants to replace New Jersey's tax system with a flat tax. He says despite what the polls show, he's hopeful.
"I have such a great group of workers across the state," he tells CBS 2's Christine Sloan. "As you know, it's been years of work to get to this point. Whether it was working on Teterboro Airport, the gas hike or toll hike, or ballot question, we've built an army of volunteers who are committed to making New Jersey prosperous again.
Lonegan's supporters are appreciative of the amount of time he's put into his campaign.
"He's such a decent guy. He's tried so hard and I think people should give him a chance," says Elizabeth Flynn, one of his supporters.
Moderate Republican Chris Christie is considered the front-runner, even ahead of Corzine in the polls. The former U.S. attorney, who's responsible for putting more than 100 corrupt politicians behind bars, is waging his war against the Democratic governor.
"I'm going to wake up every morning thinking about how to make our government smaller and more efficient as governor and return more tax money to people," he says. "And Gov. Corzine wakes up every day thinking about how he can grow the size of government."
Voters supporting Christie say the economy is big on their minds.
"I have nothing against Jon, but he's not doing the job. If he were, we would not be in the financial mess we are right now, so it's time for a change," says supporter Jack Brunner.
Corzine, who voted in Hoboken Tuesday morning, says he's tried hard.
"We've done a lot of changes, but we've been limited because there's been an economic recession for half of the time that I've been governor," he says.
There are more than 1 million Republicans registered in the state, however past primaries have been marked by low turnout.
Polls close at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Lonegan says he's looking forward to the results.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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