Independent candidate Christopher Daggett is running for governor of New Jersey, but voters in most counties will have to look in "Siberia" to find him on the ballot.
Daggett will stand next to Gov. Jon Corzine and Republican Christopher Christie during tonight's televised debate. He raised enough money to qualify for public financing from the state, won the endorsement of the state's biggest environmental group and garnered 12% support in a Quinnipiac University poll. But unlike Christie and Corzine, who each automatically receive either the first or second position on each county's ballot, Daggett had to try his luck in random drawings for ballot placement with the nine other gubernatorial candidates who do not belong to a major party - none of whom have been able to demonstrate any widespread support for their campaigns.
In most counties, that relegates him to an obscure ballot position that election watchers jokingly compare to the vast, remote Russian region of Siberia.
"It certainly represents a challenge, and it shows again how the system is stacked by the two parties against independent candidates," said Daggett's policy director, Mark Magyar.
Daggett caught a break in two counties: Bergen, the state's most populous, and Gloucester. In both places, voters will find his name at the top of the ballot's third column - just to the right of Christie's.
But in Ocean and Atlantic Counties, voters looking for Daggett's name will have to scour the ballot to find him in the second row of the seventh column - the last possible spot (a staffer from the Atlantic County clerk's office joked that "It just worked out that way. Sorry.") In Hunterdon County, voters have to look past nine candidates before they get to Daggett's name. And in Warren County, Daggett is the 9th name to appear in the third row- right between candidates Jason Cullen and Joshua Leinsdorf.
Upset not only by his personal disadvantage but by the principle of awarding major party candidates the top two spots, Daggett last month filed suit challenging the constitutionality of the practice. It fell through when a Superior Court judge refused to hear it before November.Click here to view the Cumberland County ballot.Click here to view the Hunterdon County ballot. Click here to view the Warren County ballot.
Tags: Atlantic Counties, Ballot Position, Break In Two, Christie, Environmental Group, Gov Jon Corzine, Governor Of New Jersey, Gubernatorial Candidates, Hunterdon County, Independent Candidate, Independent Candidates, Jason Cullen, Jon Corzine, Mark Magyar, Policy Director, Quinnipiac University Poll, Random Drawings, Russian Region, Staffer, Warren County