OBAMA ALERT!
Former President Barack Obama plans to campaign in New Jersey for Phil Murphy this week, the latest in a parade of big-name Democrats to show public support for the party's nominee for governor.
Obama is scheduled to join Murphy and his running mate for lieutenant governor, Sheila Oliver, at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the Robert Treat Hotel in Newark, according to an advisory. The event is listed as a "canvass kickoff."
Murphy served as Obama's U.S. ambassador to Germany from 2009 to 2013. Before that, he was the Democratic National Committee's finance chairman. Before Obama was elected the 44th president, in 2008, he attended a fundraiser at Murphy's Middletown home that featured a performance by neighbor Jon Bon Jovi.
Click here to sign up to help Get Out The Vote for Murphy to enter a chance to see Obama this Thursday.
Murphy had another big name recently hit the campaign for him:
When Al Gore stepped on a stage in Monmouth County on Sunday afternoon, the former vice president told the crowd that the word "friendship" is thrown around too loosely in politics.
"But in this case," Gore said, mentioning the man next to him, Democratic New Jersey governor candidate Phil Murphy, "we really have been extremely close friends."
Over the last 20 years, Gore said, he and Murphy's family have vacationed and worked on projects together.
And on Sunday, Gore played the role of cheerleader for Murphy, appearing at a packed campaign rally at the Ocean Township Community Gymnasium as his friend enters the final three-week stretch of the race to succeed outgoing Gov. Chris Christie.
"This is a good man," Gore told the crowd of hundreds about Murphy.
But Gore also played the role of attack dog.
He ripped into both Christie, whose approval ratings have fallen to historic lows in recent months, and Kim Guadagno, Christie's lieutenant governor and Murphy's Republican opponent in the Nov. 7 election.
"Has anybody here been embarrassed by what's gone on here?" Gore, a 69-year-old Tennessee native, asked in his deliberate southern drawl. "Here you have an administration in Trenton and a presidency in Washington, D.C., and sometimes it's kind of hard to take."
"I have been a keen observer of the many, many times of late that New Jersey has been in the news for something the current administration has done," Gore added.
Meanwhile, Christie’s Lt. Governor has been trying to channel Donald Trump in desperate late attempt to score votes:
Brigid Harrison was surprised when she saw the recent campaign ad on illegal immigration released by Republican New Jersey governor nominee Kim Guadagno.
"I found it rather uncharacteristic of Kim," Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State University, said of Guadagno, the state's lieutenant governor, who is running to succeed Gov. Chris Christie. "It was not how she's played politics for the last eight years."
Indeed, the ad sounds less like Guadagno -- a plain-spoken, middle-of-the-road Republican -- than it does a far-right member of the GOP. You might even say it sounds like Donald Trump.
The ad jumps on Democratic opponent Phil Murphy's remarks that he would be willing to make New Jersey a "sanctuary state" to protect undocumented immigrants. And it suggests that Murphy's proposal would shield immigrants who are criminals.
"Make no mistake," the narrator says, "Murphy will have the backs of deranged murderers."
Down double digits in the polls and saddled with a massive fundraising disadvantage with about three weeks to Election Day, Guadagno hasn't made much headway with her main platform: a promise to cut property taxes.
Some say the ad could be a Hail Mary attempt to get a bump from Trump supporters and members of the Republican base who are deeply opposed to undocumented immigration.
"She definitely is taking a page out of the playbook of Trump and some prior races we've seen across the country where this (issue) has been used effectively," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.
Whether that's effective in New Jersey -- a deep-blue and deeply diverse state where Trump is largely unpopular -- is the question.
Maybe, Murray speculates, another goal is to coax "some of the deep-pocketed conservatives across the country" to give Guadagno "some much-needed cash."
Either way, let’s seal the deal and win this race. Click here to donate and get involved with Murphy’s campaign.