New Jersey
“Off-year” elections do not attract the large number of referendums and issue initiatives that are typically found on ballots in presidential and congressional election years. But Tuesday, the Election Day for most states holding 2007 contests, featured a handful of ballot propositions that had national implications. The following are analyses of the outcomes of four of these measures.
Cost-conscious voters rejected school vouchers for Utah students, state-sponsored stem cell research in New Jersey and higher cigarette taxes in Oregon to fund health care for uninsured children.
New Jersey voters rejected a ballot measure that would have dedicated all of the proceeds of last year’s sales-tax increase to reducing the state’s property taxes, the highest in the nation.
Tuesday’s ballot included four public questions, the most put before the voters at one time since 1995. New Jersey voters haven’t rejected a statewide ballot question since 1990.
An interview with New Jersey Republican chairman Tom Wilson
Over the past two weeks, we have endorsed 18 candidates for seats in the state Legislature and six candidates for county positions. Some are Republicans, some are Democrats. Some are incumbents, some are challengers. But they all share one thing in common: They offer voters the best chance for fundamental change — change that is desperately needed in Trenton and in Freehold, the Monmouth County seat.
Democrats will try to defy historical trends and strengthen their hold on the Legislature while Republicans hope to restore a measure of political balance to New Jersey government in statewide elections Tuesday.
New Jersey Republicans support I&R.
Kean supports all nine planks in the state Republican Party’s platform, including stricter ethics laws, tighter caps on spending and initiative and referendum for citizens.
Tax rebates for homeowners who make more than $200,000, a new school-funding formula and the future of the state’s lottery and toll roads are among the key state issues to be decided at the polls next month.