NJ Today

Balut Is Still Running

Democrat Ken Balut is still working to get elected as New Jersey's next Governor.

"Jon Corzine cannot be trusted and he is irresponsible with money," Balut says, pointing to several examples without raising the obvious and obscene campaign spending for which the former Wall Street CEO is known.

"Gambling away NJ's pension funds," is one of Balut's complaints that will resonate with many Democratic constituencies, as will, "Closing hospitals," in a state that has lost a quarter of its acute care medical facilities.

Balut also faults Corzine for, "Ignoring rampant corruption," and "Protecting Secret Emails," which make the incumbent appear more like something out of the Bush administration than a choice for change that Democrats are likely to embrace.

At his blog -- http://balut4governor.blogspot.com/ -- Balut makes a strong case for independents and others who may currently be routing for one of the four GOP contenders, most notably former US Attorney Christopher Christie.

"No Republican is going to be elected governor of New Jersey, where Democrats have won 15 of the last 17 statewide elections," says Balut. "The gap between Democrats and Republicans is greater than ever. George Bush left the GOP so near death, it's almost surprising there are enough Republicans in New Jersey to have a four-way primary."

Ken Balut is the only challenger waging a serious primary campaign to defeat multimillionaire Jon Corzine, and he is calling on Garden State Democrats to rise to the challenge.

His fledgling campaign is already rooted on Google and Facebook but supporters say a full-blown website is in the works that will seek to garner 10,000 individual contributions of just $34 each -- to give Balut the magic number that will qualify the campaign for public matching funds.

Is New Jersey ready for real democracy and a real Democrat?