Forrester says Bush's troubles tilted the vote

Never forget

Republican took 'pounding' but thought he'd be governor

Sunday, November 13, 2005
BY DEBORAH HOWLETT AND JOE DONOHUE
Star-Ledger Staff
It's all George W. Bush's fault.

Doug Forrester, in his first postelection interview, laid the blame for his loss in the governor's race last week directly at the feet of President Bush. He said the public's growing disaffection with Bush, especially after Hurricane Katrina, made it impossible for his campaign to overcome the built-in advantage Democrats have in a blue state like New Jersey.

"If Bush's numbers were where they were a year ago, or even six months ago, I think we would have won on Tuesday," Forrester said. "Katrina was the tipping point."

Forrester sat for the interview yesterday, on a crisp and sunny fall morning, at his house on the Manasquan River in Brielle.

He answered questions for two hours in a candid and free-ranging discussion over coffee and powdered-sugar doughnuts at a burled dining room table made of petrified wood and zebrawood.

Four days removed from the campaign, he wore denim jeans and boots, with a blue suede jacket over a crisp white shirt. He looked a bit bruised and battered, but clearly was unbowed.

"I don't think that there's any candidate that has ever received such a pounding," he said.

The low point in the race was supposed to be the high point.

"Election night was emotionally much more difficult because we came in quite confident we were going to win," Forrester said.

Early reports from towns and precincts the campaign targeted showed Forrester running stronger than expected. "I had a call at 7 o'clock from one of my campaign managers saying, 'Governor, we did it,'" he said.

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