As Corzine sets spending records, Franks continues to trail in polls

As the fall campaign season heats up, national attention is turning to the New Jersey Senate race — which continues to break spending records as former Goldman Sachs CEO Jon Corzine, a Democrat, and Republican Rep. Bob Franks fight to replace retiring Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D).

Corzine, whose campaign is being funded by his immense personal fortune, has already set records for spending in a Senate election. The Washington Post reported yesterday that Corzine has averaged $1.7 million per week in spending since Labor Day, including $5 million for ads during NBC's Olympics coverage.

Franks, meanwhile, is running on a more conventional budget, hoping that he can overcome his opponent's financial advantage by succeeding in debates and running on his record in Congress.

Franks campaign communications director Peter DeMarco said that despite Corzine's heavy spending, he thinks Franks will be successful.

"We'll never be able to match Jon Corzine dollar for dollar. We knew that going in," he said, explaining that Corzine's advertising campaign actually may be adversely affecting the candidate's cause.

"All we know about Jon Corzine is that he wants to buy a Senate seat," DeMarco said. "It's a blitz of television ads with little substance behind it. He never paid attention to public policy before he decided to run for Senate."

Corzine spokesman Tom Shea said the race is going well for his camp, but that he expects the election to be close. "Things are going well," he said, "but history suggests that most statewide races are competitive."

Shea said he did not believe voters would be alienated by the large amount of money being thrown around in the campaign and downplayed the importance of his campaign's spending habits.

"It's something that people in the media community get excited about, but it's not what the voters care about," he said, accusing Franks of running solely against Corzine's money, and not on real issues.

"You need to give voters a reason to vote for you," he said. "We are now five-and-a-half weeks from Nov. 7 and Franks has yet to give voters a reason to vote for him." DeMarco, however, said Franks is looking forward to the upcoming debates because it will give him an opportunity to talk about issues with Corzine without being disadvantaged by a smaller bank account.

"We have four debates coming up," he said. "Those will help voters to make a decision between the two candidates."

Franks is also gearing up to join the ad war "very, very soon," DeMarco said. It is a move that he believes will even out the race in the final few weeks. Republicans hope that once Franks' ads go on the air, Corzine will be challenged on issues in a new way, and they expect his lead will shrink.

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Corzine spent $36.7 million to win the Democratic primary against former Gov. Jim Florio. The Associated Press is projecting that he will spend up to $50 million on his race for the Senate this year. The previous record was set by Republican Michael Huffington, who spent $30 million in his failed 1994 bid for the Senate seat from California.

New Jersey is an unusually expensive state in which to advertise because it is covered by two major media markets — Philadelphia and New York — and no smaller, cheaper markets.

With so many Corzine ads on television in New Jersey, voters have had plenty of exposure to at least one side of the campaign. A poll released last week, however, showed that New Jersey citizens are paying plenty of attention to the Senate election this year, but most of them are watching the race on the other side of the Hudson.

The Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers Poll found that a majority of New Jersey voters are following the New York Senate race between Rep. Rick Lazio (R-New York) and First Lady Hillary Clinton.

Fifty-two percent of those polled say they are paying close attention to the Clinton-Lazio race, compared to only 14 percent who say they are watching the battle for their own state's seat.

The same poll showed Corzine leading Franks 47 percent to 32 percent, with about 21 percent of respondents remaining undecided, a margin that has not changed much since the primaries ended early in the summer.