Opening Faceoff: Gubernatorial Election – Independent

by Heather Shupe

For the last few months, the television has been bogged down with commercials concerning the election for governor of New Jersey. Candidates Chris Christie (Republican) and current Gov. Jon Corzine (Democrat) have been using these commercials to sling mud on their opponents. One candidate, however, has not put down either candidate in order to further his political support: Chris Daggett, the independent candidate for the upcoming 2009 gubernatorial election.

Daggett has said that too often campaigns are built around tearing one another down and he wants to change that. During one of his election commercials, Daggett said that he thinks “it’s time, in New Jersey and in this campaign, to talk about things positively. To talk about these issues, how we need to deal with them, to make this a better state, a state that’s more affordable and a state that we can all be proud of.”
Daggett was born in Orange, and grew up in Bernards Township. He has lived in New Jersey all of his life and is truly devoted to making the state better as a whole. Daggett knows that the struggling economy cannot be fixed by stimulus money and tax cuts, and he is creating a plan to lift the state from the $38 billion debt that has accumulated. Daggett has a seven-point plan to improve New Jersey, including making us competitive with other states, reining back property taxes and the state budget, investing in our future by improving transit problems, providing a healthy environment, finding practical solutions for the Council on Affordable Housing, improving the quality of education and implementing regulatory reform. Hopefully, Republicans and Democrats can both agree that the governor’s position has nothing to do with political parties but the issues themselves, and the issues can be resolved by the independent candidate, Chris Daggett.