| Jon Corzine is looking to be reelected governor of New Jersey. He is going up against a "Bush/Cheney" republican in Chris Christi. And Christi really is in every way measurable. He used is office and government resources for selective prosecution just like his boss Alberto Gonzalez. Christi is suspected of protecting people like his brother from prosecution while claiming to be anti-corruption. New Jersey, like the world, is struggling under a financial crisis, and Christi has no - absolutely no - financial experience, especially government finance, which is arguably the most complicated.
Jon Corzine on the other hand has the proven financial chops: led a multi-billion dollar, global corporation and successfully reduced the burden on New Jersey tax payers by 4 billion dollars, yep billion with a "b". He also, as he promised four years ago, aggressively attacked corruption with an absolute zero-tolerance policy, passing a pay-to-play ban state wide, ending double and triple dipping on state benefits and pensions, and even got a ban on dual office holding. Corzine successfully reduced the opportunities for corruption and the costs to New Jersey's tax payers. He did all of this on the cusp of the worst financial crisis to hit our state in literally 59 years.
On paper, Corzine's re-election looks like a no-brainer. So why is the Governor struggling in the polls and even in his "home base" of Hoboken and Hudson County? Most columnists will claim Corzine is tainted by the corruption scandal of 44 individuals in New Jersey and New York arrested in July on charges of wide-spread bribery, money laundering and human organ trafficking. The picture of Gov. Corzine with former Hoboken mayor Peter Cammarano at Cammarano's inauguration is the most sited.
Is it possible in a city and county that has a history of corruption that traces its infamous roots back to the Revolution War truly likely to be so swayed by one picture? To be honest, the answer is no. Sure a few "reformers" may be but the majority of voters know that if all elected officials were branded guilty by association, then there would be no one running for governor or running any government in New Jersey at all. And Jerseyans have proven that they aren't going to throw the "baby out with the bath water".
So what is holding Jon Corzine back in his bid for re-election? In short, Jon Corzine. New Jersey's unemployment is over 9%. In Jon Corzine's home county of Hudson it as consistently been the highest unemployment rate in the entire country and as been over 10% since the spring. And all the ills of unemployment, foreclosures, bankruptcies, increasing crime, etc., have plagued Corzine's base.
And here is the rub, while Jon Corzine comes from humble Midwestern roots he is and has been for many, many, many years a billionaire - yep billion with a "b". Corzine during the best of times is not a warm speaker. He tends toward professorial, corporate speak like he is in front of employees and shareholders. It is a valuable skillset in the right context but not this one. Corzine is weak speaking off-script (did you see him on The Daily Show) and weaker still when speaking from the heart.
And he didn't help his heart-chances in the selection of is running mate. Loretta Weinberg is 74 years old, double the median age of New Jersey voters (36.7), and from about the third sentence in her acceptance speech as Corzine's running mate, she has been the attack dog of the campaign. From the mind of the 30-45 year old voting block of the Hudson, Bergin and Essex Counties, grannies got teeth when they want a hug.
Somewhere, somehow the Corzine/Weinberg campaign needs to recognize that people vote from the heart or gut far more then their head and they need someone who can speak to those voters. When people are daily fighting to keep their homes, preserve their businesses, are losing sleep over financial worries, what case can a billionaire make to them? What can Corzine or someone from his campaign to relax their tense muscles in their shoulders and stomachs? Who with a voice of authenticity can say "I'm voting for Jon Corzine because my financial situation would be worse if he wasn't my governor" and "I can't afford, my family can't afford anyone else but Jon Corzine as our governor".
Simply: voters need to know Jon Corzine feels their pain and has a prescription to make it go away. |
