October is upon us and the first two presidential debates are out of the way. With another remaining and all the press in general, most of America is focused on the Presidential election for November 8, 2016. The first presidential debate had enormous ratings. Most people in America have tuned in for this year’s election with record setting turn out as expected. With that as a back drop it would seem as if there is no room for candidates to be campaigning in New Jersey for the gubernatorial race slated to have its election on November 7, 2017.
Gubernatorial is a term for the election that chooses a governor. There are four major democrats expected to compete for the primary: State Senator Raymond Lesniak, former US Ambassador to Germany Phil Murphy, State Assemblymen John Wisniewski, and son of a former governor Brendan Tom Byrne Jr. For the Republican side it is expected that Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno, Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, State Senator Mike Doherty, Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, and Joseph Rudy Rullo a businessman from Ocean County will all make a run for governor. All eyes seemed to be pealed for Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno’s announcement of her candidacy. Unfortunately for her, governor Christie’s ratings are at an all-time low, and it could prove difficult to distance herself from him. The governor does have a large personality that has attracted national attention and she has made very little public appearances. Since she has not made many public appearances the state on the whole knows little about her. Therefore, she has a very fragile task of presenting herself to New Jersey voters, many for the first time, in a manner that plays on her experience and doesn’t tie her to the governor. Kim Guadagno does have experience as the lieutenant governor but also as the secretary of state for New Jersey. But that doesn’t make up the full list of the experience she has had.
Kim Guadagno was not born in New Jersey, but in Waterloo, Iowa. She moved to the east to attend Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. She graduated cum laude and went on to attend American University Washington College of Law in the capital of this amazing nation, Washington, DC. She received her juris doctorate degree (cum laude) and went on to have a distinguished career that included: federal prosecuter in Brooklyn, New York with the Organized Crime & Racketeering Strike Force, Assistant United State Attorney in Newark, State of New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, teacher at Rutgers University School of Law-Newark, Monmouth Beach planning board, Borough Commissioner, and first woman sheriff in Monmouth County. During this time, she moved to Monmouth New Jersey where she currently resides with her husband and three sons. She is a strong and able leader who has shown herself competent in the world of politics and has a very good shot at winning the republican nomination for governor of New Jersey.
