Response by Rick Thigpen

The restoration of the economy as the voters' main concern presages a repeat performance for George Bush in New Jersey where he lost by over 500,000 votes in the 2000 election. Unless he is able to hide behind the shield of Commander-in-Chief, the voters will focus on his poor stewardship of an economy that has lost over 3 million jobs, seen poverty increase, and more Americans without health insurance than ever before. They will also observe that he has given nearly $2 trillion in tax cuts mainly to the wealthiest Americans and turned a budget surplus into an unbelievable deficit of more than $500 billion a year. With a performance like that, he'll be lucky to lose New Jersey by only 500,000 votes in 2004.

see also:
Survey Analysis
Salmore's Analysis
Tabular Results
Survey Details

Comment by Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind Academic Associate, Rick Thigpen (J.D., Columbia University Law School). Rick is a former Executive Director of the New Jersey Democratic Party and now a partner in The Strategy Group and is a campaign coordinator for the Essex County Democratic Party. Rick Thigpen, Esq. can be reached at (609) 394-0888.