It is my happy privilege to be able to stand here and tell you that if you elect me you will have elected a governor who has made no promises of preferment to any man or group.

I would rather be respected than elected.

Conscious of our many problems, I seek today to lay a foundation to our public policy. My fundamental purpose is to devote my term of office to raising the standard of public service in New Jersey.

Our democracy poses problems and these problems must and shall be solved by courageous leadership.

Economics, politics, and personalities are often inseparable.

My goal was to make New Jersey's state government a model for all other states to emulate, hopefully thereby to stem, or at least slow down, the flow of power to the federal government.

I want to make this perfectly clear: you can be sure that I will never be a yes-man except to my own conscience.