Sarah Palin (Getty)

Just when I thought I'd seen everything, I find (again) that I'm wrong. Up in Alaska, where taking digs as Gov. Sarah Palin has become a cottage industry, there's a new twist.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, the Alaska Personnel Board -- which has been tasked with the responsibility for investigating ethics complaints filed against the governor -- has decided to work with the state Attorney General's office to make public the cost of investigating each ethics complaint.

On Tuesday, New Jersey Republicans will go to the polls to choose their nominee to battle Gov. Jon Corzine in the fall campaign.

After that, the campaign should be all about Corzine.

Re-election campaigns are always -- always -- a referendum on the incumbent.

Voters ask themselves a very simple question: Does this guy deserve another term in office, or not?

If you're the challenger, you must convince a majority of the voters that the incumbent doesn't deserve another term in office, and then -- and only then -- can you convince them that you offer a credible alternative.

For true aficionados of New Jersey Republican politics, tonight's gubernatorial debate promises to be the encounter we've all been waiting for: a chance for Steve Lonegan and Chris Christie to explain their competing visions for the state.

For Lonegan, it is something more -- it will be, perhaps, his last chance to change the dynamic of the GOP gubernatorial primary campaign and overtake Christie in the final week.

Two new polls released last week show Christie's lead over Lonegan has expanded into significant double-digit territory.

But they also show that a huge portion of the likely GOP primary electorate still doesn't know enough about the candidates to make an informed choice.

Chris Christie has opened a 23-point lead in the New Jersey GOP gubernatorial primary, according to a new survey by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, and that sound you hear is me, eating crow.

According to the Q Poll, Christie now leads former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan by 56-33 percent.

Similarly, a new Monmouth University poll shows Christie with a 50-32 percent lead in the GOP primary.

As anyone who's ever worked a major campaign knows, debates are not won in the auditorium; they are won in the news media.

Other than our quadrennial presidential debates -- which have taken on the status of pop culture events like the Super Bowl or the Academy Awards -- so few people actually watch political debates live on television that the only way anyone knows anything about them is through the media's coverage of the debates in the days following.

Consequently, debates -- to the extent they have an impact on voter attitudes -- are "won" or "lost" in the coverage that follows them. That's especially true of debates like the one coming up tonight between candidates for the Republican Party's gubernatorial nomination.

If this had happened in 1990 or 1994, how different would the last decade have been on the national scene?

Two weeks ago, we suggested the possibility that embattled New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine might decide to invade the GOP gubernatorial primary in an attempt to defeat or cripple his strongest potential opponent, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie.

Yesterday, The New York Times' David Halbfinger reported that the Democratic Governors Association is getting ready to do just that -- begin advertising against Christie -- while he's still fighting for the GOP nomination.

So just who at the DGA reads this blog, anyway?

Earlier today, New Jersey's gubernatorial campaigns revealed how much money they've got left to spend in the 28 days remaining before the June 2nd primary.

Front-running Republican Chris Christie reported a whopping $3 million cash on hand.

His main conservative challenger, former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, reported having about $500,000 left for the stretch run.

That's likely to be the only good news of the day for Christie, and even that will be trumped by a larger story -- complete with made-for-TV visuals -- offered up by Lonegan's campaign, about which, more below.

No, not this Jack Ryan.

THIS Jack Ryan.

Even in New Jersey -- where corruption is endemic -- voters expect their politicians to mouth the standard platitudes about fighting corruption.

It's like a New Jersey take on an old Soviet-era joke: "The politicians pretend to fight corruption, and we pretend to believe them."

So when a politician breaks tradition by publicly recognizing and thanking a guy who was convicted of conspiracy in a plan to bribe local officials to rig contracts, people sit up and pay attention.

And when that politician is governor of the state, and the crook he's recognizing and thanking publicly is a major campaign donor, it makes news.