Sitting across the bar from Lucas, Robert Burnham, a "truly middle-class citizen," said incumbent Jon S. Corzine has done "all right" so far.
"I don't know too much about this Christie guy," said Burnham, a boilermaker, referring to Republican candidate Christopher J. Christie.
Political analysts say the biggest issue is whether traditional Democrats, some less than thrilled by Corzine's first term, will shed the malaise and turn out in full force to support him.
"The whole election is really going to hinge on the Democrat party's mobilization effort," said Richard Harris, director of the Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs at Rutgers-Camden. "If they can mobilize their voters to turn out, they should be OK."
In New Jersey, there are about 700,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans, with a powerful 2.4 million unaffiliated with any party.
Christie, a former U.S. Attorney, has a smaller but more energized base at the moment, said Ben Dworkin, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics, and there's no doubt his supporters will be in the polling booths bright and early Tuesday.
"It really comes down to an approach to politics," Dworkin said. "Which do you think is more important, the side that has a lot more voters but are less enthused or the side that has less voters and are more enthused?"
Corzine spokeswoman Lis Smith said the governor and lieutenant governor candidate Loretta Weinberg have "all of the momentum going into the final days of the campaign."
"People across New Jersey recognize that Gov. Corzine is fighting for what matters most to New Jersey families - getting health coverage for over 100,000 more kids, strongly supporting a woman's right to choose, and passing paid family leave that allows workers to care for their loved ones," Smith said yesterday.
