LAWRENCEVILLE - With less than a week to go to Election Day, folks on both sides of the $450 million bonding referendum for stem cell research – the infamous Question 2 – are working hard to capture momentum.

The last days of the campaign ignited a rapid sequence of events sparked by fearless leaders Corzine, Codey and Cohen digging in, literally, as they broke ground on the New Jersey Stem Cell Institute in New Brunswick two weeks before the election.

As the shovels flew, the fact that voters haven't yet approved funding for it didn't seem to matter at all.

A last minute bid by New Jersey Right to Life to keep the initiative out of play on Nov. 6 failed as a state appellate court decided that in New Jersey anyway, "it does not matter that a better, more informative statement could possibly be crafted."

New Jersey Right to Life released a series of poignant television ads featuring Steven McDonald the paralyzed New York City policeman speaking out for adult stem cell research and against the use of human embryos.

The five Catholic dioceses of New Jersey continued a compelling campaign focusing on the moral, ethical and religious perils wrapped up in the "promise" of embryonic stem cell research.

The Trenton Diocese claimed the highways with ads on a small fleet of buses traveling the highways and byways of Mercer, Monmouth, Burlington and Ocean counties calling the attention of motorists and bystanders to the remarkable fact that the adorable baby in the ads – a little boy named Joshua – was "just an embryo 270 days ago."

Bishop John M. Smith proclaimed the message of life on New Jersey Nightly News and got the attention of a lot of mainstream media outlets that had been giving rather one-sided coverage to the issue.

That attention intensified when Gov. Corzine was widely and repeatedly quoted in the media as being "prepared" to use his own money to "counter the opposition."

The New Jersey Stem Cell Institute trotted out that really scary Rutgers U. scientist Wise Young to put his spin on things. He informed eager reporters - and it was duly reported - that the "opposition" was spectacularly misinformed on two major counts: the embryonic stem cells are all in labs waiting to be thrown out and in New Jersey, $450 million is really nothing but chump change when you consider how much money our legislators spend on everything else.

A Rutgers-Eagleton poll found voters supporting the ballot question by a 57 to 36 percent margin among all voters and that Catholic voters support it by a margin of 48 – 41 percent. Considering the linkage between Rutgers and the New Jersey Stem Cell Institute, you'd have be a nitwit to take those results at face value.

Throughout the five years of the ongoing embryonic stem cell saga in New Jersey, voters have been on the sidelines. They have listened to the pundits, the legislators, the superstars as well as those who actively support adult stem cell research, but can't abide the idea of paying for research fueled by developing human beings. Now it is the voters' turn to have a say.

It's also time to pray. Pray for life as we prepare to push that button, pull that lever or mark that ballot.

We've come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord. Let's keep leaning.