Newsmax columnist John Gizzi was fully in thrall of his employer’s illusions about the New Jersey governor’s race for an Oct. 30 article:
With five days to go before New Jerseyans elect a new governor, few — if any — are predicting a winner in the increasingly tight contest to succeed lame duck Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy.
But more than a few observers believe the key to the outcome may well be someone who is not on the ballot but will have an impact on the race one way or another — President Donald Trump.
The just-completed Emerson College Poll, released Wednesday night, showed Democrat Rep. Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli in a virtual tie, 49% to 48%, among likely voters.
As we know, Sherrill won that race by a comfortable margin, undoing Newsmax’s illusion of momentum in that race. Interestingly, Gizzi did not ask how Ciattarelll lost that race; instead, he spent his Nov. 5 column questioning how a supposedly easier slam-dunk failed:
Less than a month ago, Republican Jason Miyares seemed assured of reelection as attorney general.
With some mean-spirited texts of Democrat opponent Jay Jones resurfacing, the resulting public outrage seemed to suggest that Miyares was headed to victory — no matter how his ticketmates for governor and lieutenant governor did.
But it was not to be.
Despite the texts suggesting he would like to see former state House Speaker Todd Gilbert shot more than he’d rather see Hitler or Cambodian despot Pol Pot shot, despite calls for his removal from the Old Dominion’s statewide ballot (out of the question at this late date in the election year), former state Delegate Jones emerged triumphant over Miyares.
The premier reason most often cited by experts on Virginia politics was the big (57% to 43%) election of Democrat Abigail Spanberger as governor.
“Spanberger’s coattails got him across the finish line,” Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University (Virginia), told Newsmax. “The size of this landslide was just too much for a down-ticket Republican to overcome.”
[…]A record 1.1 million Virginians voted early or absentee, and many of them voted before the texting scandal broke.
Although ticketmate Spanberger sharply denounced Jones’ text, neither she, nor any major Democrats, called for him to withdraw from the race.
Moreover, the Democratic Attorneys General Association pumped in more than $1 million into the Jones coffers after the controversial texts became public.
Miyares himself miraculously (or not) escaped blame; Gizzi went on to declare that “For his part, Miyares, 49, is sure to remain a popular fixture among state Republicans, and already there is talk that the son of Cuban refugees will run against Democrat Sen. Mark Warner next year.”
Gizzi’s column was accompanied by an interview of Miyares which erroneously stated “Poll: Jason Miyares Leading Jay Jones in VA AG’s Race.”