They're Both Right

Independent candidates for office have the potential to alter the political calculus of a given race, but, perhaps more importantly, they can also change our very notions of what constitutes the liberal and conservative positions on a whole host of issues, at least so far as these are defined by the duopoly actors in the contest. In New Jersey's gubernatorial race, independent candidate Chris Daggett may be able to accomplish something along these lines, and arguably, he already has. Last week, Dagget unveiled his plans for a major overhaul of New Jersey's educational system. At The Examiner, Anthony Walko argued that Dagget was "more conservative than the Republican [Chris Christie] on education . . . Christie’s proposal for education just throws money at the problem." If Republicans feared that Daggett's candidacy would likely only siphon votes away from Christie, today they may be heartened, it has become clear that the independent is an equal opportunity spoiler. The New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club has endorsed Daggett for governor. Eric Kleefield states at TPMDC, "With state environmental activists backing him, it would seem more likely that he would take votes away from the Democrats as opposed to the Republicans." However, as Josh Margolin notes at the Star-Ledger, "Both Cozine [D] and Christie [R] believe the other is hurt more by the presence of a strong independent candidate." Maybe they're both right.