Was 9-11 Memorial Munsil's ticket to victory?

Over at EspressoPundit, one commentator doesn't think the controversy over the 9-11 Memorial didn't get enough play.

"The 9-11 memorial would have been much bigger had it not been played down as an election year scheme and overshadowed by all the other hyperbole of the multitude of campaigns."

In reality, Len Munsil's gubernatorial campaign flatlined when he jumped on the 9-11 Memorial bandwagon. After a surprisingly strong primary victory over Don Goldwater, he promised to unveil a major policy proposal each week of the general election campaign. Instead, he spent the rest of the race trying to convince voters that Janet was responsible for the Al-Quada attacks on the World Trade Center.

That was too much of a stretch. Voters were plenty concerned about the impact of illegal immigration on local crime, neighborhood blight, and school overcrowding, but weren't going to buy that the Governor was a co-conspirator in Islamofascism.

He had at least two television ads on the topic, neither one of which was very good. (The first one barely mentioned Munsil's name.) Then the Republican Party produced the infamous piece of mail that ended up at Democratic HQ with the cover shot of the WTC in flames.

I know that the national Republican strategy was to connect the twin threats of illegal immigraiton and terrorism to Democrats, but Munsil's gambit seemed forced and in retrospect was the end of his gubernatorial chances.