It was hard to go anywhere at this week’s New Jersey League of Municipalities conference in Atlantic City without finding a party featuring one of the state’s nine gubernatorial candidates — or having them drop by parties organized by others.
Events held by Representatives Mikie Sherrill and Josh Gottheimer along with one featuring former State Sen. President Steve Sweeney certainly were packed.
The candidates probably should have spent some time in the exposition hall.
The expo, in one of the largest venues in the state, was packed with vendors looking to do business with municipal officials — vendors who count on government purchases to survive and thrive.
Vendors who, simply put, should be more connected to the political process in the state than the average voter.
But when ROI-NJ did one of its on-the-spot unofficial surveys to see which candidate was the front-runner among the vendors, we were stunned to discover just how many were unable to identify even a single candidate — or do so in a fashion other than ‘the women who was in the military’ or ‘the guy who is on the radio.’
One didn’t even know there was a gubernatorial election on the horizon.
The statement: ‘I don’t know who is running’ had more votes than those for the rest of the candidates combined — a result consistent with a recent Rutgers Eagleton poll.
The results of our poll were gathered from such a small sample and in such unscientific fashion (we looked for people who were engaged with potential customers) that we won’t say which actual ‘candidate’ had the most votes. But we will offer these two data points:
The leader only had approximately 12% of the total vote count – and for those who had a candidate, more were supporting a Republican (58%) than a Democrat (42%).
To be clear, we’re not discounting the results of our three-question survey. In fact, we think they are telling.
The result of the first question could be important in a state in which the presidential election seemingly showed that New Jersey no longer can be considered solidly blue.
Speaking of that last election, President-elect Donald Trump certainly was on the mind of vendors.
When asked the second question: If Trump’s election was good for the state, bad for the state or would have no impact on the state, the overwhelming majority (60%-14%) picked ‘Good’ over ‘Bad’ – with 26% saying they were ‘unsure’ or felt it would have no impact either way.
Those who said it was a good thing for the state, didn’t stop there. Most offered that it was going to be good for the country. Some said it would be good for the world.
Yes, the randomly sampling of vendors – let’s call them a sample of everyday voters that politicians are so eager to connect with – had plenty to say. And they weren’t going to let our questions get in the way.
The third and final question: What is the most important issue facing the business community in New Jersey had an interesting result, too.
The choice of taxes and the cost of living/doing business had about the same number of responses, far exceeding the third option – the amount of regulation.
The winning choice, however, was one that was not even offered: ‘All of the above’ was the most popular response.
Therein lies an inside look at the next gubernatorial election in the state as seen through the League of Municipalities.
The candidates certainly are out campaigning, doing all they can to get name recognition – billboards for Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and small trucks plastered with pics of NJEA President Sean Spiller could be seen all around town.
How well the candidates are being viewed by the average voter remains to be seen.
