The street is sick of it:
"In interviews across the state, a common theme emerged among voters: They're sick of the mudslinging, name-calling and finger-pointing, and want to hear what the candidates will actually do for them."
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Nasty New Jersey Race Has Voters 'Ticked Off'
By WAYNE PARRY
AP
TUCKERTON, N.J. (Oct. 20) - For Dale Parsons, the truth about the U.S. Senate race is as hard to crack as the clams he has in his bayside seafood store.
"I'm ticked off," said Parsons, a registered Republican who's not greatly impressed with either Tom Kean Jr., or Robert Menendez. "There's just so much negativity, you don't know who to believe anymore. You can't trust any of them."
In interviews across the state, a common theme emerged among voters: They're sick of the mudslinging, name-calling and finger-pointing, and want to hear what the candidates will actually do for them.
In a race that's virtually even, both camps are counting on a large turnout - something that might not happen if large numbers of voters are so turned off by the whole thing that they'd just as well stay home on Election Day.
Martha Travastino, a 50-year-old ultrasound lab supervisor from Hackettstown, is disgusted with both candidates.
"I think it's very negative," she said. "All they do is accuse each other of the same thing."
Tom Lawler, a 38-year-old paralegal from Jersey City, feels the same way.
"A couple of ads have been completely negative and not about the issues," said Lawler. "That's a turnoff. It doesn't inspire me toward anyone."
Kean, the Republican state senator from Union County, has made accusing Menendez of corruption the centerpiece of his advertising campaign, repeatedly asserting the Democrat is "under federal criminal investigation."
Federal investigators have reportedly subpoenaed records from a nonprofit agency that rented a building from Menendez. He helped it secure millions of federal dollars while he served in the House. Menendez denies he is under investigation.
Menendez has tried to link Kean as closely as possible to President Bush and the unpopular Iraq war and privatizing Social Security.
Both efforts are bearing fruit. Jules Platt, a fabric salesman from Hackensack, said he'll vote for Menendez as a check on Bush's power.
"Kean is too much of a Bush Republican," he said.
Likewise, Kean's ads questioning Menendez's ethics are sticking with at least some voters. Travastino, the Hackettstown hospital supervisor, said Menendez is a big-spender with corrupt associates.
But Pat DiBella, 56, of Hammonton, plans to vote for Kean, and resents Menendez' efforts to tie him to the president.
"I'm more concerned about what these guys are going to do for New Jersey," she said. "What President Bush has done with the war is done. These guys are trying to get into office."
Norman Greco, a former town councilman in Kean's hometown of Westfield, will vote for Kean because "he's young and aggressive."
"I think Menendez has too many skeletons in his closet," said Greco, who owns a downtown sandwich shop. "Kean has no baggage."
Some voters clearly associate the younger Kean with his father, New Jersey's popular former governor and co-chairman of the 9/11 commission.
"I really just think his father is swell, and I hope he's going in his father's footsteps," said Lucy Abrams, a 63-year-old retiree from Newton. Menendez, she said, "doesn't show me anything."
Jeanne George, a volunteer at a Westfield thrift shop, also supports Kean, largely because of his lineage.
"I like his father very much," she said. "But I want him (Kean Jr.) to tell me what he's going to do. I don't want to hear how bad the other guy is."
Not everyone thinks playing up the family ties is a good idea.
Travastino said she will probably vote for Kean, even though she considers him "wishy-washy."
"I think he's using his dad to make himself look better," she said.
"Kean's son probably wouldn't be running for senator is he was not Kean's son," said Rich Cann, of Maple Shade.
Tahqiq Abbasi, who owns a Union City textiles shop, is voting for Menendez for two reasons.
"He is against the war in Iraq, and we are losing a lot of people over there," he said. "Plus, he went to my mosque the other night to meet and speak with us, and I really appreciated that."
Sherry Ayres, a 31-year-old writing coach and SAT tutor from Jersey City, is backing Menendez because she wants Democrats to take back control of the Senate.
"I would vote for any Democrat," she said. "He would have to really, really screw things up for me not to vote for him." |
