Looking for the Ethics MOAB

The air war between New Jersey's gubernatorial candidates is white hot, but it hasn't yet reached its crescendo. In the latest commercial, Republican Doug Forrester has a narrator speak about Democrat Jon Corzine's relationships with scandal-tainted Democrats and a $470,000 loan he forgave for a former girlfriend, Carla Katz, who heads the state-employee labor union that endorsed him soon after.

This is only the latest in a non-stop media blitz that started early this year. The commercials, which run in the expensive New York and Philadelphia markets and on local cable, have helped break the record for spending on a New Jersey governor's race: $30 million so far, fully three-quarters of it on television. Of that, nearly all has been financed by the candidates' personal fortunes. That's a pricey wet kiss for voters.

The latest Quinnipiac poll says it's effective. About 90% of voters saw an ad by both candidates, even though Mr. Corzine has outspent Mr. Forrester by about $8 million since the primaries. Mr. Forrester has battled from an 18-point deficit this summer to seven points this week, largely based on ads that accuse Mr. Corzine of being a tax raiser and associating him with known New Jersey scalawags.

But with less than three weeks to go, Mr. Forrester has a lot of work to do. He has lost ground with independent voters, who favor Mr. Corzine by 50% to 38%. To win, Mr. Forrester must recapture them. Look for Forrester commercials to continue to hammer Mr. Corzine on ethics, which polling suggests is his Achilles heel among independents.