Too Close to Call? US Elections and New Jersey

M.S. writes:

It's election day in several US states, with gubernatorial races in Virginia, New Jersey and New York.  Important as these elections are (and elsewhere, as in Maine, issues such as same-sex unions are up for grabs), they are largely being taken as a first-cut verdict on Obama's presidency. 

Team America suspects that you wouldn't get particularly rewarding odds on Bloomberg, the billionaire New York incumbent, and most commentators think that the G.O.P. will be back in the state for lovers with a landslide.  New Jersey, however, is 'too close to call'.

The state has a long tradition of being rather divided, and was considered a swing state until relatively recently, when it tends towards the Democrats.  It is a tradition that goes back to the early days of the Republic, and the the first governor of New Jersey, William Livingston (one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence).  Despite being the 'scion of an elite New York clan', he sounds like he wouldn't last very long in the cut and thrust of today's political environment.  According to the American National Biography, he found that 'the emotional, highly charged personalized character of New York politics drained him', and he retired to rural New Jersey, founding his estate Liberty Hall in Elizabethtown.  The ANB goes on to almost damn him with faint praise: 'he deserves to be remembered as one of the most accomplished among the second rank of founding fathers.'

Livingston survived several assassination attempts, but because of this threat from the Loyalists, rarely spent a night in Liberty Hall, and instead spent the period travelling around the colony, staying in taverns and hostels, bringing this wealthy politician into contact with the people; as the ANB puts it, 'this continuous proximity resulted in a communion between Livingston and the populace that was as remarkable as it was improbable.'  Perhaps because of this communion, Livingston became a strong opponent of slavery and a supporter of land distribution.  Some historians have also argued that unmarried propertied women were also deliberately given the vote in the 1775 state constitution. 

This political ferment all made for some very interesting printing, much of which can be consulted in the BL, either in the originals, or through the microform sets of Early American Imprints.  A good guide place to start is also Joseph J. Felcone, New Jersey books, 1698-1800: the Joseph J. Felcone Collection(Princeton: J.J. Felcone, 1992).