New Jersey set to vote to replace unpopular Christie

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A former Wall Street executive and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's second-in-command are the leading candidates Tuesday as voters head to the polls to begin choosing who will replace the unpopular Republican governor.

The winners in Tuesday's primaries will compete in the Nov. 7 general election in one of just two statewide gubernatorial contests in the country this year, along with Virginia, and the first since Republican President Donald Trump took office.

The candidates are little known even in New Jersey and are competing as Trump administration developments swamp headlines, spurring the Democratic candidates to lash out at the president and wedging Republicans between an unpopular White House and a GOP governor whom most voters disapprove of.

On the Democratic side, candidates attacked wealthy front-runner Phil Murphy over his time as an executive at Goldman Sachs, comparing him to members of Trump's administration who also worked there and former Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, another Goldman Sachs alumnus who, like Murphy, donated to local New Jersey Democratic parties.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/article/New-Jersey-set-to-vote-to-replace-unpopular-11198217.php