New Jersey gubernatorial election, 1997

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November 4, 1997

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Nominee	Christine Todd Whitman	Jim McGreevey
Party	Republican	Democratic
Popular vote	1,133,394	1,107,968
Percentage	46.87%	45.82%

Winning percentage by county:

Whitman—60-70%

Whitman—50-60%

Whitman—40-50%

McGreevey—40-50%

McGreevey—50-60%

McGreevey—60-70%

Governor before election

Christine Todd Whitman
Republican

Elected Governor

Christine Todd Whitman
Republican

The New Jersey gubernatorial election of 1997 was a race for Governor of New Jersey. It was held on November 4, 1997. In the Democratic primary state senator and Woodbridge Township mayor James McGreevey defeated pre-primary front-runner Rep. Rob Andrews by 9,993 votes. Although incumbent Republican Governor Christine Todd Whitman had a comfortable lead in polls in the run up to the vote, on election night she prevailed over McGreevey by a narrow margin of 26,953 votes (1.05%), a similarly narrow margin to her previous election. Whitman won 46.87% of the vote, with Democratic nominee James McGreevey receiving 45.82% and Libertarian Murray Sabrin receiving 4.7%.

In June, a 60-second radio ad paid for by the New Jersey Republican Party focused on the 30% income tax cut and 180,000 new jobs. Whitman ads blamed McGreevey for the state's auto insurance rates. The Whitman campaign emphasized the drops in unemployment, violent crime and welfare rolls during her term. Other ads took aim at McGreevey's record on taxes, particularly his support for former Gov. Jim Florio's (D) tax increase. The RNC criticized former Gov. Jim Florio (D) in an ad October, calling his 1990 tax increase a result of electing "liberal Democrats".

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