N.J. lieutenant governor candidates meet for debate

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. - Kim Guadagno, the lieutenant governor candidate running with Republican Christopher J. Christie, attacked Gov. Corzine's record on taxes in a debate last night, attempting to turn the public discussion toward pocketbook issues, and away from insurance coverage for mammograms and other topics pressed by the Democratic campaign.

"The voters understand that the key issue today isn't about mammograms. It isn't about traffic tickets. It's about taxes, taxes, and taxes," said Guadagno, the Monmouth County sheriff, in a debate among the running mates on the three major tickets in this year's gubernatorial election.

Corzine's running mate, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D., Bergen), fired back that the governor had cut the state budget by $4 billion in the last year and trimmed more than 8,000 government jobs during his term. She said Christie had yet to present a budget plan of his own, and she continued to argue that Christie's health-insurance proposals would hurt women.

The state has wrestled with "the outcome of the George Bush economic policies," Weinberg said. "We've already done what we could do in a really tough economic time."

Guadagno said there were still projections of an $8 billion budget deficit next year, adding that "in my house, that's not a budget cut. That's a spending problem."

The feisty exchanges came during the only debate featuring the candidates vying to become the state's first lieutenant governor. The 90-minute event at Monmouth University was a freewheeling affair, with rowdy applause and catcalls from the audience.

The debate touched on economic issues as well as the tone of the campaign and even Christie's weight. Guadagno, in her home county, was the aggressor, and put much of her energy into trying to move the focus from Christie's health-care plans, which Corzine has highlighted with a deluge of advertising in recent weeks.

At one point, Guadagno asked Weinberg if New Jerseyans were "overtaxed." Weinberg said she agreed that "taxes in New Jersey are too high."

Former Republican state chairman Tom Wilson later said the statement had "essentially declared the Corzine administration a failure."

"For most New Jerseyans, what matters most is taxes," Wilson said.

After the debate, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, a Democrat who has backed Corzine, said, "There are problems that have to be addressed, and the Corzine administration has been addressing them and will continue to do so."

Frank Esposito, a Kean University professor and former administrator who is running with independent gubernatorial candidate Chris Daggett, said his ticket was the only one that has proposed a solution to the state's high costs - a 25 percent property-tax credit, up to $2,500, funded by expanding the sales tax.

He repeatedly accused the campaigns of focusing on personal and partisan attacks.

"This campaign between the two major parties has focused on all kinds of distractions, and that's wrong. We have serious problems. We have serious business in New Jersey," Esposito said.

The conversation also turned to the sensitive topic of Christie's weight, raised in a New York Times article yesterday and alluded to in a Corzine television ad.

Moderator Eric Scott, of New Jersey 101.5 FM radio, asked Weinberg, "Do you think Chris Christie is fat?"

"I don't think that there are too many of us in this race that could make it [as] . . . finalists of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette," Weinberg responded. She said none of the candidates' weights should be a topic of conversation.

Asked specifically about the Corzine ad, which shows an unflattering shot of Christie stepping from a car after an announcer accuses him of "throwing his weight around," Weinberg said, "I don't think that there was anything said in that ad that was overt."

Guadagno said the ads were a "complete and total distraction" from "Jon Corzine's tax-and-spend-and-borrow attitude."

As for Christie's weight, she added, "I think the cat's out of the bag. He's been in public service for seven years."

Weinberg repeatedly pressed the Corzine campaign's argument that a Christie plan to remove some health-insurance mandates would lead companies to end coverage for a variety of procedures, such as mammograms.

"Every insurance company that fought us on every mandate will take all those mandates out," Weinberg said.

Guadagno accused the Corzine team of using scare tactics against women. She said Christie's plan would make insurance less expensive and help uninsured women get coverage.

After the debate, Corzine defended his campaign's focus on the issue. "It goes to a core, basic difference of whether you are going to stand with the women of New Jersey or stand with insurance companies," he said.

The debate was far sharper than when the top of the tickets met last week.

At one point Guadagno said she was happy she owns a bulletproof vest.

"Politics," she said, "is a blood sport."