Bridge between campaigners and Rider closed

By Casey Gale
The annual Campaign Managers Conference, initially set to take place on Feb. 20 and feature high-level representatives from the campaigns last fall of Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Barbara Buono, was canceled two days before the event was set to take place.
The cancelation comes on the heels of investigations into the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal and questions about the use of Hurricane Sandy funds.

“The 2013 gubernatorial campaign in New Jersey was a fascinating race, and we had eagerly looked forward to focusing on this particular race during the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics’ Campaign Managers Conference — our annual look at how modern campaigns are run,” Rebovich Institute Director Ben Dworkin said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, due to recent controversies and ongoing investigations, it has become clear that a full discussion of the campaign is not possible at this time,” he said.

Political science professor Dr. Frank Rusciano said that the faculty were not given much more information beyond the statement.

“Neither side really wishes to discuss these issues, since they could be held accountable for any comments about them,” he said. “However, without those discussions, there is not much to talk about, so the event had to be canceled.”
The conference, which would provide an inside look into how the 2013 gubernatorial campaign was run, would have featured panelists Bonnie Watson Coleman, Buono’s campaign chair; Bill Palatucci, Christie’s re-election chair; Adam Geller, founder and CEO of the Republican polling firm, National Research; David Turner, Buono’s communications director; and Michael DuHaime, Christie’s strategist.