Chris Christie last night became the first Republican to be elected governor of New Jersey in more than a decade — a stunning triumph that came just days after President Obama put his prestige on the line and visited the Garden State to urge voters to re-elect Democrat Jon Corzine.
With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Christie, a former US attorney who pledged to cut the state’s enormous tax burden, had 49 percent of the vote over Corzine’s 45 percent.
Third-party candidate Chris Daggett had 6 percent.
“This election was and is about the future of the state of New Jersey,” Christie said last night in a victory speech at the Parsippany Hilton.
“Tomorrow, together, we begin to take back New Jersey. Tomorrow we will fix this broken state.”
To cheers, he vowed to “pick up Trenton and turn it upside down.”
In his concession speech, Corzine — whose approval ratings were in the toilet for over a year — said he was “proud” of the work done during his one term.
“To be the governor of this great state has been a joy that I could never have imagined,” he said, and pledged to help Christie throughout the transition.
Massive voter discontent played prominently in his defeat.
“I voted for Chris Christie because he’s not Jon Corzine,” said Craig Royer, 46, of Woodbridge, crisply summing up the feelings of many who went to the polls yesterday.
The closely watched race was monitored nationwide for clues to next year’s midterm elections.
The White House insisted the election wasn’t a referendum on Obama — and many voters said the state’s heavy property taxes were a deciding factor.
But as proof of the importance the GOP placed on the race, the Republican National Committee chairman, Michael Steele, boarded a flight to New Jersey shortly after Christie took the lead and plans events today to highlight the Republican win.
Obama’s three visits to the Garden State, last-minute robocalls, and the involvement of some of his campaign team had little impact.
Exit polls showed some 60 percent of voters said Obama had nothing to do with their decision.
The polls also showed independent voters — so crucial to Obama’s victory last year — overwhelmingly favored Christie.
He now becomes the first elected GOP governor of New Jersey since another Christie — Christie Whitman.
In the early part of the campaign, the race seemed like it was Christie’s to lose, with Corzine languishing 10 points behind in the polls as late as September.
But as the race heated up, Corzine closed the gap.
The former Goldman Sachs exec and US senator hammered into Christie with a heavy rotation of negative ads.
In the most notorious campaign ad in recent memory, his campaign claimed the overweight former prosecutor “threw his weight around” to get out of traffic tickets.
In case anyone missed the point, the ad also featured Christie in a series of unflattering angles, his girth moving in slow motion.
But the married father of four stayed true to his core message: Taxes are too high, and Trenton’s spending and corruption are out of control.
That message resonated with voters, who pay the highest property taxes in the country.
“I’m tired of paying these ridiculous property taxes, I’m tired of the mismanagement in Trenton,” said John Thorton, 27, an accountant from Weehawken who voted for Christie.
Additional reporting by Leonard Greene