Then there were two.

And though the outcome has been apparent since Phil Murphy succeeded in clearing the top-tier challengers from the Democratic primary field last September, both the campaigns and results of the gubernatorial primaries indicate that Murphy's path to the governorship is a straight and clear one.

Murphy need only to continue plugging along without missteps to become the victor.

Murphy's path became clearer with the Republican nomination of Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno. To most of us, Guadagno has always seemed to be an underutilized asset of the Christie administration. Having served as both a former assistant U.S. attorney and a former assistant New Jersey attorney general, Guadagno was the first woman to be elected sheriff of Monmouth County, and it was assumed that she brought a certain skill set to those positions.

And yet both Guadagno's performance as lieutenant governor and in her primary campaign should give voters pause.

Guadagno has been a loyal foot soldier to Gov. Chris Christie, unable or unwilling to defy him. Such loyalty would have been well-served if he were not the least popular governor in the nation. But Guadagno's behavior made it inevitable that Christie's toxicity would leech onto her. And she has exercised few opportunities to contain the contamination.

Calling her "not ready to be governor," The Star Ledger editorial board conveyed a troubling sentiment: "Her knowledge of the core issues in New Jersey is remarkably flimsy, whether discussing school funding, Port Authority reform, or even job creation, which she presents as her strong suit," an editorial endorsing her primary opponent stated.

This characterization was echoed in both Guadagno's debate performances and by editorial boards around the state, members of which expressed both incredulity that someone part of a gubernatorial administration could have so shallow an understanding of the issues facing the state and so few tangible proposals to solve its complex problems. With seven years in Trenton - and an eye on the governor's seat for an equally long time - there's no excuse for Guadagno not to have full command of the issues, and her failure to do so should be enormously distressing to voters.

Contrast this with her general election opponent, Phil Murphy, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany and Goldman Sachs executive. I initially greeted Murphy's candidacy with skepticism: I was concerned with his reliance on his former Goldman Sachs' colleagues for his campaign funds, I found his newly-minted relationships with New Jersey's party bosses concerning, and I blanched at the constant reminders of his working-class roots, as if that alone qualified him to be the savior of the downtrodden. (Would the patrician Franklin Roosevelt, architect of the modern welfare state, have been disqualified because of his origins?)

But something happened on the way to the primary. Murphy defied my expectations: he worked at becoming the nominee - harder than anyone else, despite the fact that the outcome was a foregone conclusion.

He met with voters from all corners of the state, and while talking about working class roots, he also listened to voters and came to understand the depths of how New Jersey's fiscal crises is affecting the average New Jerseyans. His new relationships with the bosses remain troubling, but we also must recognize that today those relationships are a necessary evil for anyone wanting to become governor (just ask our outgoing Republican governor).

In addition to investing his considerable financial resources into the governor's race, Murphy also has invested himself. He has studied the policy briefs and learned the often nap-inducing ins and outs of pension reform and post-employment retirement health benefits. It's a necessary chore of the job, with none of the excitement of town halls or ribbon cuttings that most politicians seem to thrive on. And Murphy has done the work well.

In the months ahead, voters will likely be spared the intricacies of those briefs. Instead they'll be treated to barrages of negative ads linking Guadagno to Christie and President Trump, and comparing Murphy to former Gov. Jon Corzine, also a Goldman Sachs alum.

Those ads will likely have little effect. Patrick Murray, the director of the Monmouth University poll, reported an interesting phenomenon: the last time that Democratic primary turnout exceeded a half million voters was 1981. The last time Republican primary turnout fell to fewer than 250,000 was never.

Though more than half of the Democratic primary voters voted for a candidate other than Murphy, Murphy's net vote (at roughly 240,000) was more than double Guadagno's. These figures demonstrate not just the fact that Democrats greatly outnumber Republicans in New Jersey, but also that there is a considerable enthusiasm gap between the parties for their respective nominees.

And in this race, there should be.

Brigid Callahan Harrison is professor of political science and law at Montclair State University, where she teaches courses in American government. A frequent commentator on state and national politics, she is the author of five books on American politics. Like her on Facebook at Brigid Callahan Harrison. Follow her on Twitter @BriCalHar

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