After jumping into the New Jersey governor's race to support Republican Chris Christie, Rudy Giuliani yesterday got in a war of words with the independent challenger -- whom the former mayor blasted as that "third-party candidate who nobody should vote for." In the final leg of the hotly contested Garden State race -- in which Christie and Jon Corzine are neck and neck, according to a new poll yesterday -- Giuliani told a crowd of Christie supporters that Chris Daggett "had no chance of winning."
For his part, Daggett wants Rudy to stay on his side of the Hudson. "I'd ask him to withdraw from New Jersey," Daggett said yesterday, following a Post report in which Giuliani was quoted calling on the independent to drop out. "I don't know why he's coming into New Jersey and trying to tell us how to run our state."
At a Christie rally in Bergen County, Giuliani just laughed at the suggestion that he should butt out.
"I feel very welcome here. I understand one of your candidates told me to go home," he said. "Nobody should vote for him, there's no chance of winning."
A poll yesterday from Farleigh Dickinson University had Daggett at 6 percent, while Corzine and Christie -- at 44 percent and 43 percent -- were locked in a virtual tie. Experts believe most of Daggett's support would go to Christie if the independent wasn't in the race.
Giuliani urged voters to back Christie, a former US attorney like himself and a fiscal conservative. "If you want to get rid of Jon Corzine, you should vote for Chris Christie," he said.
Giuliani compared the plight of New Jersey -- saddled with high unemployment and massive taxes -- to that of New York City's when he took office in 1993.
"You need a governor who understands what I understood when I became mayor of New York City. You have to cut spending, you have to cut taxes, you have to give money back to people so they can spend it," he said.
Meanwhile, Christie, who is being outspent 3 to 1 by the multimillionaire Corzine, said the negative campaign ads have taken their toll.
"After watching $25 million worth of ads on TV, I might not even vote for me," he said. "I don't recognize myself."
He is not fazed by the parade of Democratic heavy hitters -- which includes former President Bill Clinton and President Obama, who tomorrow will pay his third Jersey visit -- that Corzine has brought out in the final days of the campaign.
"This is the Jon Corzine 'Please save me from myself' tour," Christie said. "He wants to run everyone in here that he can so people forget he's the one that's actually on the ballot."