SOMERSET – Running behind in the polls and tethered to a sunken Governor Chris Christie, Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno, the Republican nominee for governor, went on offense from a church pulpit this morning against her general election opponent, presenting herself as the pocket book candidate and her rival as an out-of-touch Goldman Sachs millionaire.

“Just make more money,” she said, referring to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy’s designs on generating $1.3 billion in tax revenue with a millionaire’s tax and the legalization of marijuana among other proposals. “That’s not a plan. Then you’re not helping the people who need more help in this state. If you’re running for governor, and the number one issue is property taxes, then you better have a plan.

“You may not like it, but it’s a plan,” she said of her own circuit breaker proposal, standing on the altar of the Lincoln Gardens Baptist Church at an event sponsored by the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce. “I challenge Phil Murphy to talk about that person at the food bank, and to come up with a real plan.”

Then the GOP candidate directed Murphy directly.

“You’re going to have to go to the food bank, Phil. Not everyone lives on Navesink River Road and pays $200,000 in taxes, and didn’t work in the state. These are facts. He made $7 million last year, didn’t work a day, and he’s trying to tell people at food banks that they don’t need a tax plan. It’s unacceptable.”

Murphy made promises to the FOP and PBA, she said.

“Shame on him, for not thinking about the people, like the woman in the [food bank]… these people need relief. Sign the arbitration cap. Stop making promises that you cannot keep. New Jersey is smarter than that,” Guadagno said.

“You can make all kinds of promises in the primary, that you’re not going to be able to keep, and then back off of them in the general,” said the Republican, who added that she can’t wait to debate Murphy.

If he gets elected, businesses won’t be able to stay in New Jersey, she added, addressing the crowd of business types crammed in the congregation.

“Forget about his wacky [public] bank idea,” she said in a free-wheeling speech where the GOP nominee appeared comfortable and scrappy.

“She’s going for animated and authentic versus animatronic and artificial,” one insider observed of her presentation.