Tough Times for Wannabe GOP Guvs, too

As Roy Temple summed up succinctly in a post earlier this week, a group of Republican Governors around the country have suffered this summer at the hands of hefty ethics deficits of their own creation.  Govs. Taft of Ohio, Blunt of Missouri, Ehrlich of Maryland, Fletcher of Kentucky, and Schwarzenegger of Predator have all seen their own underhanded (and often illegal) financial and political tactics boomerang and cost them signifcant political capital. 

Now it appears as though shady spending of questionable legality is afflicting GOPers who are still trying to gain entry at the Governor's mansion.  And word on the street is that as a result, one such Republican nominee may not even make it to Election Day as his party's candidate. 

Among the swarm of consultants working for candidates in New Jersey's off-year 2005 elections, which include the race for Drumthwacket, speculation is rampant that Republican nominee Doug Forrester may not survive the month of September as his party's candidate for Governor. 

In fact, so prominent is such scuttlebutt that consultants working for candidates up and down the ballot are frequently dreaming up dual strategies for their candidates, one of which assumes that there will be a new Republican banner carrier before October rolls around, and another for the less-operative assumption that Forrester remains in the race.

Given late-in-the-game nominee switcheroos in The Garden State in past cycles, the prospects of a such a fate befalling Forrester may not be remote as they sound.

In any event, it certainly would be nice to kick one of these guys to the curb before he gets the keys to the castle, for a change.