Many NJ Democrats who voted against Phil Murphy claim that he bought this election, but the truth is, both 2017 Democratic and Republican gubernatorial candidates won because they started their campaigns years ago.

Murphy has been working rooms from here to D.C. since he returned from Germany, and Guadagno has been doing photo ops in soup kitchens across the counties in Christie’s shadow for the past 7 years.

The truth is, elections are won by the candidates who work the hardest to win. The candidates who start to plan to be governor in 2018 in 2010.

Elections are not won by money alone. They are not won by any single dirty trick or amazing speech.

Case in point: the 2016 presidential election. By September 30, 2016, Donald Trump had spoken to 337,995 rally attendees to Hillary Clinton’s 13,970. Trump would not be president now had he not had 24 times more rally attendees than Clinton.

Don’t get me started on rally attendance, either. Trump’s rallies were like Bonnaroos to Clinton’s Fyre Festivals. Clinton’s message moved through social media, sure, but it was not on the street.

Of course, Trump’s inauguration attendance was mediocre compared to Obama’s, but being president is much more difficult, and a much less forgiving job than being a candidate.

Speaking of Obama, he shared the same conclusion about Clinton’s loss during a news conference in the wake of Trump’s triumphant victory: “How we organize politically I think is something that we should spend some time thinking about. I believe that we have better ideas, but I also believe that good ideas don’t matter if people don’t hear them.”

“You know, I won Iowa not because the demographics dictated that I would win Iowa. It was because I spent 87 days going to every small town and fair and fish fry and VFW hall, and there were some counties where I might have lost, but maybe I lost by 20 points instead of 50 points,” spake Obama.

So when you shake your progressive fist at Phil Murphy, a candidate for whom Levy Sanders campaigned while his father Bernie declined to endorse his own former state campaign chair, know that Murphy won because he’s been working toward this job for years, hiring key county operatives and glad-handing in the Chamber train since 2015.

Congrats Phil, and good luck.

Congrats Kim, you beat the surging Ciat-heads and you beat them with class. With your boss’s numbers, you’ll need more than luck to pull this off.

You’d better have some Russian friends…

Nick West is a political junky, writer, and Jersey-based app developer who just can’t keep his mouth shut. You can follow him on Twitter @n1ckw3st

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