Providing Perspective on the Election

A stagnant economy with nearly double-digit unemployment. Staggering health care costs. Double-entendre TV advertising. Questionable communication. Sky-high property taxes.

After months of listening to gubernatorial candidates address issues – some more important than others – it’s time for voters to speak – with their Election Day ballots. 

Not only will they elect the state’s chief executive, but also its first lieutenant governor, all 80 members of the General Assembly and hundreds of county and local officials.

Panelists from the Eagleton Institute of Politics will mull the implications of the election at 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 4.

Rutgers faculty, including those listed below, have provided valuable insight during the long campaign and are available to comment as this political season winds to a close. Ruth B. Mandel and John Weingart are director and associate director, respectively, of the Eagleton Institute. The institute explores state and national politics and government through research and education, and links the study of politics with its day-to-day practice.

Policy analyst Ingrid Reed directs Eagleton’s New Jersey Project. Her work focuses on campaigns and elections from the point of view the citizens, including the effect of negative advertising on voters.

Debbie Walsh heads Eagleton’s Center for American Women and Politics, and is an expert on women’s political participation.

David Redlawsk, a professor of political science and director of the Rutgers-Eagleton Poll, has been monitoring what matters to New Jerseyans.

And with the ongoing, heated national debate on health policy reform Joel Cantor has been a much appreciated resource to legislators and reporters. Cantor is the director of the Center for State Health Policy.