Notes from the Garden State

In a dull election season, our tri-state area offers some entertainment next month, including a closely-watched race for governor of New Jersey, a contest I am delighted not to have to participate in given the choices.

The challenger is U.S. Attorney Chris Christie who had built up a positive image by pursuing a string of corruption cases—not exactly rocket science in New Jersey, but a worthwhile endeavor nonetheless. He had a comfortable lead a couple of months ago against incumbent Jon Corzine, whose first term has been undistinguished. Corzine came to the job after a stint as CEO of Goldman Sachs some years before that entity converted the U.S. government into its wholly-owned subsidiary.

Corzine used his obscene wealth to essentially purchase the U.S. Senate seat for New Jersey, spending a record $62 million in 2000. (This was before Mike Bloomberg.) He followed up with a bid for Drumthwacket—the New Jersey’s governor’s mansion—and closed that sale as well in 2005. He has followed a fairly liberal agenda, abolished capital punishment, promoted stem-cell research and tried to hold back the sea of red ink engulfing most states these days. But he also has had his share of dubious dealings, not least involving his girlfriend, a top union official whose role in contract negotiations with the state raised serious issues of impropriety.

All in all, Corzine is someone you’d like to see retire to his yachts, and he seemed to be en route there. But then there’s the alternative, Chris Christie.

Christie doesn’t really sell as a corruption-buster because he engages in too much of it himself, like handing sweetheart no-bid contracts to the law firm of his former boss, ex-Attorney General John Ashcroft. He drummed up a high-profile anti-terrorism case through the use of agents provocateurs and went after Democratic electoral candidates at suspiciously inopportune moments, like right before elections.

He imprudently thought that things were bad enough in the state that he could sail into office without a real campaign platform, and polls show the race now a dead heat.

Worst of all, Christie belongs to the Republican Party, and that engine of mass dementia and obstructionism would undoubtedly crow about an alleged ‘comeback’ were it to snatch a victory out of the virtually all-blue Northeast.

Anyone not in possession of a television for the next few weeks should praise Jesus on his knees because the display of bad taste and repugnant personal attacks in this election have plumbed new depths, including Corzine’s pathetic decision to point out that his opponent is fat. No doubt a record few of New Jersey’s elegible voters will crawl through the muck to the polling places in November, and who can blame them?