Years ago, Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno wanted to illustrate for an audience just how much power her boss, Gov. Chris Christie, wielded in comparison to her own.

"Four years ago," she told them, "I’d call and say I’m Lt. Gov Kim Guadagno, would you give me a call back. Nobody would call me back," Guadagno said. "But fast forward. I now make these phone calls. 'Hi I’m Kim Guadagno, Chris Christie asked me to give you a call. I’m his Lt. Gov, could you call me back.' People call me back now!"

In her own campaign for governor, Guadagno is far less enthusiastic about the kind of influence Christie holds. In the intervening years, he went from being a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination to having the lowest popularity ratings of any governor in the country. So, when a moderator asked her at a recent debate if she'd be willing to consider Christie as a replacement if U. S. Senator Bob Menendez’s ongoing trial results in a conviction, she answered with a swift "no."

For good measure, she added, "That was an easy one," and smiled broadly as the audience laughed.

The election to replace Christie is tomorrow and her opponent, Democrat Phil Murphy, has steadily led in polls. And while her being a Republican in a Blue state carries challenges, her affiliation with Christie has proved burdensome.

A Stockton University poll found that her connection to him made her less appealing as a candidate. And she clearly recognizes it as she has tried to distance herself from the governor in the last year. She has criticized his policies, and said outright that she is not Chris Christie.

Ben Dworkin, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, said few people knew Guadagno outside of Monmouth County when Christie picked her to be his lieutenant governor. Christie charged her with advocating for small businesses, but by design, she was to stay in the background.

Now, she is trying to emerge by campaigning as a candidate who will reduce property taxes, and she has been attacking Murphy for saying he would consider making New Jersey a sanctuary state.

Unlike her opponent, Guadagno, 58,  has a background in government. She's a mom of three, who often describes herself as a working mom who knows what the lives of ordinary folks are like. She's been a federal prosecutor and her only previous elected position was Monmouth County Sheriff.

"She carried a 2-point burden," said Carl Golden, a former official for two Republican governors and a public policy analyst at Stockton University.  "She carried the burden of having served in the administration and the burden of having to prove to people that she was her own person, had her own views, had her own identity."