After trailing Republican challenger Christopher Christie consistently since February, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine has turned on the after burners.  And following months of speculation that Corzine- a former Senator now running for a second term in the Governor's mansion- is headed for reelection.

New Jersey is one of just two states hosting major statewide elections in 2009.  Voters will go to the polls in the Garden State as well as Virginia on November 3rd to vote for candidates for governor and the state legislature.  But with the relative unpopularity of all incumbent governors across the country, Corzine became a test-case for pundits for the strength of the Democratic majority across America.  He began trailing Christie almost immediately after the former US Attorney declared his candidacy, and by mid-July was trailing by as many as 15 points.  Just a little more than a month ago, Corzine was still behind by a double-digit margin.

But over the last four weeks, Corzine has considerably closed the gap, with polls in the last two weeks scoring Corzine within the margin of error.  Tuesday morning, Farleigh Dickinson University released an indpendent poll showing Corzine leading by a razor-thin margni of one point, the first survey of any kind to give Corzine an edge in more than six months.

Perhaps complicating the picture of the race is Chris Dagget, an independent who is polling as high as 17% in some studies.

Gagget is a former Republican. He is also an environmentalist. Hard to be an environmentalist Republican these days. I'd like to see a powerful Green Party in New Jersey, however, it should start at the grass roots, not in a Governor's race.

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