A well-connected New Jersey Republican told me he thought the governor’s race could come down to a few thousand votes — a scenario he was envisioning even before the last few polls showing Democrat Jon Corzine and Republican Chris Christie neck-and-neck.

It’s down to those last few percentage points and how they shake out; the campaigns are narrowing their focus; we’re talking about a few thousand votes right now . . . Part of the problem for anybody running to change Trenton is getting people to believe. Voters have one hundred and one reasons to believe nothing’s going to get any better. We’ve had a succession of governors who have completely mismanaged the state, legislatures where both parties have history of corrupt members, and we have a State Supreme Court that overrules any law they don’t like. Voters feel disenfranchised and disempowered. And now we see Corzine spend tens of millions to dampen enthusiasm and cloud what was once a clear distinction. He’s actually trying to tap into cynicism and dampen turnout, because that’s the only way he can win.

I guess you could call Corzine’s strategy “The Audacity of Hopelessness.”