Cynthia Burton of the Philadelphia Inquirer surveys the market value of religiosity for New Jersey candidates running at the state and local level. The story succeeds more for giving a broad overview than any in-depth analysis, but it’s admirable in itself that Burton’s looking locally for instances of religious campaigning: an assemblyman mails voters a photo from his confirmation; a mayor grandstands about religious songs during a Christmas rally. Burton’s also found a few good quotes, including the deliciously-sleazy way that Bill Pascoe, spokesman for a gubernatorial candidate stumping to an audience of 100 at a local Praise tent, reads the Bible: “‘Is it part of the campaign strategy? Sure. When you run a grassroots campaign, you take the biblical injunction: Wherever two or more are gathered in my name, I will be there.'” This vulgar but candid hucksterism puts the milquetoast assessment of Burton’s official talking head, Director of Rutgers University’s Bloustein Center for Survey Research, Patrick Murray, to shame. Murray — relying on conventional wisdom from we’re not sure when — sees campaign religion as an attempt to display an “internal value system” that transcends corrupt pay-to-play politics; “‘a way to identify yourself as above the fray.'” Religion in politics above the fray? Even without reference to last fall’s elections, and even at the local level, that interpretation seems naive at best. We’ll stick with the comaparative honesty of the political aid who admits that he’s in the ring, who winks at the press when his candidate kneels in prayer, and who knows that, in politics, a good performance is what always carries the show.