President Clinton Stumping For Corzine

[cal04]

With a shrinking lead in the race for New Jersey governor and a shaky performance in the campaign's first live, televised debate, Sen. Jon Corzine was to turn Thursday to one of the Democratic Party's brightest stars _ former President Bill Clinton _ to bolster his campaign.

Clinton was to attend a Corzine rally at Kean University in Union on Thursday evening. It will be the former president's first trip to New Jersey for Corzine during the tightening gubernatorial race. Clinton's last public appearance in the Garden State was in April when he spoke before a capacity crowd at Drew University on international issues. He was at a Hopewell Township home last August for a fundraiser for Rep. Rush Holt, after which he signed thousands of copies of his autobiography for fans.

Corzine's lead over Republican Doug Forrester has slipped from double digits through the summer to as low as 4 points, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this week. Two other polls out this week have Corzine ahead by about 8 percentage points, with 10 percent or more undecided. The U.S. senator enjoyed leads of 10 to 13 percentage points in July and August polls. A Star-Ledger/Eagleton survey earlier this month had him up by as much as 18 percentage points among likely voters.

``Corzine can't seem to get out from under that little cloud that has been shadowing his campaign for several weeks,'' said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute. ``He needs to retake the offensive and I expect you'll see he does that pretty soon.''

http://1010wins.com/topstories/local_story_272143122.html