copyright 2009, The Washington Post EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- Chris Christie defeated Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine on Tuesday, handing Republicans a rare victory in a state that Barack Obama carried last year by 15 percentage points. Christie, a former U.S. attorney, rode a wave of voter outrage over taxes and the recession to a decisive victory despite being outspent by as much as 3 to 1. He led Corzine 49 percent to 44 percent with 80 percent of the ballots counted. Corzine had spent most of the summer trailing Christie by 10 percentage points and more. The race tightened this fall, with a surge by third-party candidate Chris Daggett. Christie benefited by a stronger-than-expected turnout in GOP strongholds and a feeble showing by Daggett, who Democrats had hoped would split the anti-Corzine vote. On Tuesday, he captured only about 5 percent of the electorate. No Republican has won statewide office in New Jersey in more than a decade. Exit polling showed that voters who describe themselves as independent voted 2 to 1 for Christie. As a candidate, Corzine dipped into the personal fortune he accumulated on Wall Street, repeating the pattern that won him a U.S. Senate seat in 2000 and the governor's office four years ago. Most of the $23 million he had spent through late October bought attack ads that drew attention to Christie's record of support for President George W. Bush, his record as U.S. attorney and even his weight. Christie, whose campaign spent $8.8 million, cast the contest as a referendum on Corzine, who won office four years ago on a proudly liberal platform and a reputation of financial competence earned as a managing partner of Goldman Sachs. 'Today is a day for change,' Christie said after voting in Mendham. 'I think the public is ready for that.' Corzine began the day smiling. 'I feel great today,' he told reporters in Hoboken, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. 'I feel a lot better than I did in July and August. I feel like we have a lot of momentum.' The incumbent was saddled with approval ratings in the low 30s and fallout for the financial downturn that had him cutting the state budget and reneging on a vow to reduce property taxes for most residents. New Jersey voters leaving polling places Tuesday ranked the issues as their top priorities. Corruption ranked third, an indicator of support for Christie, who trumpeted his record of prosecuting public officials. 'History says it ought to be Corzine, but every governor from Arnold Schwarzenegger east is suffering from this economy,' said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University poll. 'And Corzine is not a popular guy.' Going into Tuesday, many analysts said Corzine's ceiling was about 40 percent of the vote, and anything beyond 10 percent for Daggett would significantly help Corzine win another four years in Trenton. 'If he's under 6 percent,' John Weingart, associate director of Rutgers University's Eagleton Institute of Politics, said before the results were known, 'that's probably good for Christie.' Turnout was the other variable. President Obama came to New Jersey three times in the past week to urge voters to come out for 'my partner.' Neighborhoods near downtown Newark were speckled with the blue-and-white fliers and handouts indicating a widespread get-out-the-vote effort. Democrats found encouragement in the clear skies, and anecdotal evidence indicated reasonable turnouts of about 50 percent in Newark's East Ward, a diverse working-class neighborhood adjoining downtown. But poll workers said they were seeing relatively few of the 800,000 new voters who swelled Obama's totals. 'This is about normal,' said Eunice Bey, election judge in the East Ward's District 13 polling place, a firehouse. 