Gary T. Steele is a tax attorney and former candidate for Governor of New Jersey

Governor of New Jersey

The Office of the Governor of New Jersey is the executive branch for the U.S. state of New Jersey. The office of Governor is an elected position, for which elected officials serve four year terms. While individual politicians may serve as many terms as they can be elected to, Governors cannot be...

 from Kinnelon, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

.

2009 campaign

He ran for governor, as an independent, on a platform of tax reform. Steele advocated smaller government, saying:

"Thomas Jefferson warned that 'a government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have."

He was not invited to take part in the televised debates with Democratic nominee and incumbent governor Jon Corzine

Jon Corzine

Jon Stevens Corzine is the former CEO of Goldman Sachs and of MF Global, and a one time American politician, who served as the 54th Governor of New Jersey from 2006 to 2010. A Democrat, Corzine served five years of a six-year U.S. Senate term representing New Jersey before being elected Governor...

, Republican nominee and former federal proscecutor Chris Christie, and another independent candidate, Chris Daggett who had met New Jersey's threshold of funds raised to be awarded matching funds from the state. This was despite that a Fairleigh Dickinson University

Fairleigh Dickinson University

Fairleigh Dickinson University is a private university founded as a junior college in 1942. It now has several campuses located in New Jersey, Canada, and the United Kingdom.-Description:...

 PublicMind^(TM) poll showed him at twelve percent when his rival, popular "independent candidate Chris Daggett’s name was removed from a sample ballot and substituted with the name of another independent", and notable since he apparently had no political base, practically no money, and attracted little attention since he announced his candidacy.

But Steele's apparently extraordinary vote share in the Fairleigh Dickinson University

Fairleigh Dickinson University

Fairleigh Dickinson University is a private university founded as a junior college in 1942. It now has several campuses located in New Jersey, Canada, and the United Kingdom.-Description:...

 poll, was far less a reflection of Steele's strengths than a reflection of the overestimation of the vote share of the other "third party

Third party (politics)

In a two-party system of politics, the term third party is sometimes applied to a party other than the two dominant ones. While technically the term is limited to the third largest party or third oldest party, it is common, though innumerate, shorthand for any smaller party.For instance, in the...

" challenger, Christopher Daggett

Christopher Daggett

Christopher Jarvis "Chris" Daggett is a former regional administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection...

, whose lagging name recognition, the FDU pollsters suggested, did not seem to correspond to repeated and increasing estimates of his popularity. Thus, for the purpose of research, the FDU pollsters substituted Steele as "the independent" to measure the popularity of being "independent" as compared to being a particular candidate.

Steele's campaign raised $22,090. He won 3,585 votes (0.15%).

Later activities

After the election Steele was a vocal critic of the media's treatment of independent candidates. During his campaign, he appeared on NJ 101.5 several times, but as election day neared, the station refused him airtime. Steele condemned them, saying: "In the beginning Jim Gearhart was great. But later, they wouldn't let me on the air, even though they were all for getting rid of the incumbent!"

Steele ran for Morris County, New Jersey

Morris County, New Jersey

Morris County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey, about west of New York City. According to the United States 2010 Census, the population was 492,276. It is part of the New York Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Morristown....

 Freeholder

Board of Chosen Freeholders

In New Jersey, the Boards of Chosen Freeholders are the county legislatures in each of that state's 21 counties.- Origin :New Jersey's system of naming county legislators "freeholders" is unique in the United States...

(county legislator) as a team with fellow activist Jason Cullen in 2010, but lost with 3,451 votes.