Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine has
stood beside President Barack Obama in Hackensack and Holmdel.
He shared a stage with Vice President Joseph Biden in
Philadelphia this summer and again this week in Edison. Even
former President Bill Clinton got called in.

With less than two weeks until the state’s gubernatorial
election, Corzine is counting on the star power of the national
Democratic leadership to attract the 23 percent of Democrats who
said they remain undecided in an Oct. 14 Quinnipiac University
poll. Obama stumped for Corzine yesterday at Fairleigh Dickinson
University in Hackensack.

“He’s one of the best partners I have in the White
House,” Obama said during a 27-minute speech in which he said
Corzine helped craft economic stimulus legislation. “New Jersey
needs to give Jon Corzine four more years.”

Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 720,000 voters
across the most densely populated area in the country, where
residents haven’t elected a Republican to statewide office since
1997. Corzine, 62, is the only U.S. governor seeking re-election
this year, as voters blame him for a variety of fiscal woes.

Until this month, Corzine trailed Republican Christopher
Christie in polls. The governor caught Christie, 47, after
launching ads attacking the Republican’s support for ending
health insurance mandates and his links as a fundraiser for
former President George W. Bush.

Obama Factor

In the spots, Corzine questioned Christie’s driving record
following a 2002 traffic accident in which Christie turned the
wrong way down a one-way street, hit a motorcyclist and wasn’t
issued a ticket; and his ethics for giving a loan to an aide who
worked for him when he was U.S. Attorney for New Jersey.

Corzine, former chairman of Goldman, Sachs & Co., tied with
Christie, each with about 40 percent, in this month’s Quinnipiac
poll, which had a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points. Two
days before the president’s July 16 visit, the incumbent trailed
Christie, 41 percent to 53 percent, in a poll that had an error
margin of 2.5 percentage points.

Sixty-one percent of voters approved of Obama in that July
poll; among Democrats, the president got a 90 percent rating. In
an August poll, Obama’s approval was 56 percent, while 89
percent of Democrats liked his performance.

“The tactical edge Corzine wants here is mobilization,”
said Peter Woolley, director of Fairleigh Dickinson’s PublicMind
polling center. “The Democratic game plan seems to be simply to
outmuscle the Republicans and convince their strong and broad
base of voters to stick with the party.”

Biden, Clinton

Earlier this week, Biden told a cheering crowd in a
gymnasium at Middlesex County College in Edison that he trusted
Corzine’s views on the economy so much that he had sought out
the governor’s opinion on how to handle the recession.

“It’s great to be here with one of the best partners that
Barack and I have in the country,â€

Clinton, speaking Oct. 20 to South Jersey Democrats at a
ballroom in Collingswood, said Corzine’s re-election was
important for the country and the state. Clinton joined the
first-term governor for a second rally later that day at Rutgers
University in New Brunswick.

Obama rallied 3,500 Democratic voters yesterday, telling
them that Corzine extended unemployment benefits for 600,000
jobless and added more than 100,000 children to health-care
rolls. The campaign distributed tickets to the event.

During his address delivered as the local evening news was
being broadcast, Obama said he wasn’t speaking solely to those
in attendance. Rather, he said, he was aiming his remarks at
“all of those watching out there,â€

‘Motivating Folks’

“Motivating folks to get to the polls and vote is going to
be part of what we have to do,” said Union Assemblyman Joseph
Cryan, head of the Democratic State Committee. “We do that
well, but the president can always help us do it better.”

Adenah Bayoh, 31, who owns an International House of
Pancakes restaurant in Irvington, said she was undecided before
attending the rally. She voted for the governor in 2005. Bayoh,
a Fairleigh Dickinson alumnus who was drawn to the event by
Obama, said she’s behind Corzine now.

“Obama made some great points in that right now, people
everywhere are losing their jobs and the economy is bad,” she
said in an interview. “I’ve always been a Democrat, but I
haven’t been that inspired in this election.”

Overcoming Indifference

Krishna Yalla, 24, said he was indifferent before attending
the rally. Yalla, who’s unemployed after graduating from the
university in May with an economics degree, said the event
energized him.

“For me, it was Obama,” Yalla said as he filed out of the
auditorium. “To have a public endorsement from the president,
who I support, is a huge push.”

Christie released a Web video yesterday ahead of Obama’s
visit titled “Yes We Can,” which features the president
talking about the need for change. “If you want real change,
start by changing governors,” Christie’s campaign said in the
video description.

The Republican candidate was scheduled today to make stops
at a diner in Newton and a retirement community in Hackettstown.
Corzine planned to be in Camden this morning for an event at
Cooper University Hospital, where he spent 18 days after a near-
fatal car crash in 2007. The governor then was headed to
Woodbridge this afternoon to receive a New Jersey State
Policemen’s Benevolent Association endorsement, according to his
campaign schedule.

Last Debate

Both candidates were scheduled to appear along with
independent Chris Daggett in their third and final debate
tonight at 8 p.m. on WBGO Radio. Daggett, a former commissioner
of the state Department of Environmental Protection, received 14
percent of the vote in Quinnipiac’s poll this month, up from 8
percent in July.

Daggett has helped Corzine by taking voters from Christie,
said David Redlawsk, director of the Rutgers-Eagleton Poll and a
political science professor at Rutgers.

A Rutgers-Eagleton poll released today had Corzine leading
Christie, 39 percent to 36 percent, within an error margin of
4.1 percentage points. Daggett garnered support from 20 percent
in the survey of 583 likely voters, conducted Oct. 15-20.

Campaign Spending

Corzine has spent at least $16.8 million on the race, more
than triple Christie’s $5.4 million, according to campaign
finance data released Oct. 7. Daggett, 59, has spent about $1
million. Christie, who is accepting public matching funds, has
said he expected to be outspent by the governor, who is not
taking taxpayer funds. The Republican is limited under state
public-finance laws to $10.9 million for the campaign.

Corzine spent a total of $100 million on his runs for U.S.
Senate and his first race for governor four years ago.

“You’ve got a lot more Democrats in New Jersey,” said
Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac polling institute in
Hamden, Connecticut. “Are they all going to be swayed by Obama
and Biden? Probably most aren’t. But some are.”

To contact the reporter on this story:
Terrence Dopp in Trenton, New Jersey, at
tdopp@bloomberg.net .

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
Ambitious U.S. economic engagement with North Korea would help end Pyongyang's isolation and moderate its behavior, aiding efforts to rid that country of nuclear arms, a task force report said on Thursday.

The study by leading U.S. experts on North Korea, released as Washington weighs whether to engage in bilateral talks with Pyongyang, argues that sanctions alone will not denuclearize the North and will tend to strengthen hostile forces there.

"Sanctions alone cannot provide protection from the threat posed now or in the future by North Korea," said the report by the Asia Society and the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.

"Instead, economic engagement starts a process that may lead to significant benefits without enhancing the DPRK's military capabilities or making the U.S. or its allies more vulnerable," it said.

A U.S. outreach -- through academic exchanges, development projects, and helping North Korea work with the International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank -- could spur better behavior by Pyongyang while helping its impoverished citizens, the task force argues.

With approaches similar to those the Obama administration is attempting with Iran and Myanmar, Pyongyang could be shown incentives that "generate vested interests in continued reform and opening, and in less hostile foreign relations," it said.

The task force acknowledges that North Korea has not shown much interest in economic reform or opening, and that a delicate leadership transition to succeed leader Kim Jong-il means Pyongyang's hardliners appear to be ascendant.

BOLSTER MODERATE FORCES

North Korea held its second nuclear test in May and conducted a series of missile tests, drawing fresh U.N. Security Council sanctions designed to restrict its arms sales and proliferation activities.

But the North also signaled it wanted better relations with Washington, freeing two jailed U.S. journalists in August and signaling that it could return to multilateral region talks but wanted to talk to the United States first.

Washington should be patient and determined and take steps to bolster forces in North Korea that want to engage, while promoting interactions that increase the importance of markets in the North's economy, said the report.

"Military and civilian hardliners in Pyongyang flourish in an international atmosphere of hostility, distrust, and isolation; pragmatists will be unable to advance their agenda without contact with the world outside," it said.

The State Department last week said it had decided to grant a visa to Ri Gun, North Korea's No. 2 official at six-party talks, to attend unofficial meetings in New York and San Diego at which U.S. officials are also expected to appear.

The task force recommended Washington expand official contacts "as widely as possible with North Korea," while also utilizing so-called "track two" unofficial dialogues like the ones Ri will attend later this month.

In addition, academic exchanges with North Korea should be expanded, U.S. aid and development groups should be encouraged to work there, and the United States should end policies aimed at keeping Pyongyang out of the IMF and other international financial institutions, it said.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

TRENTON, N.J. – Six major media outlets who use Election Day polling to gauge the mood and attitudes of the nation on Friday asked a federal judge to stop enforcement of a state court ruling that bans exit polling near voting sites.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court by the National Election Pool, a consortium that includes The Associated Press, CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS.
A Sept. 30 state Supreme Court decision bars exit polling and all "expressive activity" within 100 feet of polling places.
New Jersey is the only state to keep exit pollsters and journalists from approaching voters within 100 feet of a polling place. The request for a preliminary injunction comes less than three weeks before the state's Nov. 3 gubernatorial election.
The news group argues that exit polling is constitutionally protected. Federal courts have struck down similar attempts in other states.
"We think exit polling is very different from the kinds of activity that anti-electioneering laws like New Jersey's are aimed at, and every court that has given its full attention to that question has agreed with us," said Dave Tomlin, associate general counsel for the AP.
Polling experts say the ban means error rates for exit polls will be much higher.
Both the quality and quantity of the information decreases significantly because interviewers are supposed to approach voters in a preset pattern, such as every fourth voter. As the distance from polling places increases, experts say, so does the likelihood that voters get into their car without being approached or blend into a crowd that includes people who didn't vote.
"The public interest will be better served by the prevention of any such chilling effect, which would deprive citizens, political leaders, journalists, and scholars of some or all of the uniquely accurate and detailed information that is provided by exit polling," lawyers for the National Election Pool said in court papers.
In establishing the buffer zone, the New Jersey court said it is a reasonable restriction of free speech because all activity is banned within the 100-foot perimeter. The court noted that political speech is protected by the First Amendment but can be barred near a polling station to protect the right to vote.
"The last 100 feet leading to a polling place belong to the voters on Election Day," the court wrote.
In the case that led to this state court ruling, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey petitioned the attorney general for permission to hand out wallet-size voter-rights card. The state denied the request, saying such an exemption would allow political groups inside the perimeter.
The ACLU appealed and the state Supreme Court denied its request. The court took the extra step of barring all form of "expressive activity," including exit polling.