Florio-Corzine: Down and Dirty
Steve Adubato, Ph.D.

Every campaign season I pray that those running for major statewide office will raise the level of discourse and bring some dignity to the electoral process. Every campaign season for as far back as I can remember has been a major disappointment in this regard. To date, the campaign for the Democratic nomination for US Senate is no exception.

I guess I should have expected it with Jim "I'll do whatever I have to win" Florio in the race. I spoke to Jim Courter the other day. Remember him? He was the former congressman who ran against Florio for governor in 1989. Courter is the guy Florio accused of having toxic waste barrels on his personal property. That was a lie. A gross distortion. It was home heating oil. Florio knew it was a crock, but said it anyway. He knew it would hurt his opponent and put him on the defensive. That's what Jim Florio does. He runs for statewide office and, in the process, tries to destroy people's reputations.

Now he's doing it to Jon Corzine, the "not-ready-for-prime-time" candidate who Florio has to beat in order to get a chance to trash whomever the GOP puts up. The latest Florio "scorched earth" tactic is impressive, even for him.

Florio has attempted to connect Corzine and his old firm, Goldman Sachs, with destroying blacks in the Sudan. The Florio logic is that Goldman Sachs financed an oil project (a pipeline for the repressive government) that kept the civil war in the Sudan going on longer than it should have. There is good reason to believe that slavery exits in the Sudan. The point Florio is trying to make is that by association, Jon Corzine is some sort of slave trader.

It helps to be the kind of person who ignores all sense of decency when running for office. Florio doesn't see the problem with making these off-the-wall charges. In fact, he thinks that is what campaigns are all about. Destroy the other guy, especially if that other guy has tons of his own money to spend on the campaign and has no public record. Especially if you're really unpopular for raising taxes through the roof when you last held office and you have a crappy public personality to boot.

What happens when a campaign goes in this direction is that a decent guy like Corzine is convinced by his "handlers" that the only way to go is NEGATIVE. Look, it's no secret Corzine has so far looked like a Wall Street fish out of water. His bumbling press conferences following the reports of his dopey efforts for make a few Italian-American "jokes" demonstrate this political fact of life clearly. But by all accounts he is a decent guy who wants to make a meaningful public contribution.

The problem is that whether we want to admit it or not, some of the nasty, negative things people say about you in a campaign resonate with many voters. It's not just the Sudan stuff that Florio has hit Corzine with. A while back, he pandered to the fears of seniors by telling them that Corzine wanted to put Social Security at risk by investing a portion of it in the stock market.

Florio implied that Corzine was supporting this idea because he is a Wall Street guy who wants to make money off the backs of working and middle class Americans. What Florio doesn't tell you is that this idea of investing a portion of Social Security is also supported by Bill Clinton and other moderate, if not liberal, Democrats.

After the Sudan and the Social Security attacks, the Corzine campaign sees no other choice than to trash Florio back. Even if Corzine says he wants to talk about "the issues" (frankly, he doesn't have particularly well-developed positions), he will be pushed to GO NEGATIVE.

Translation? You now see the Union County Democrats, headed by Corzine mastermind Senator Ray Lesniak, accusing Florio of raising all sorts of taxes when he was governor. That's true, but as a legislator, Ray Lesniak also voted for those taxes. Further, Florio's income tax increases had the greatest impact on the wealthiest citizens in the state. These are not your typical Democratic primary voters.

Corzine's campaign will say they have nothing to do with the Union County ads trashing Florio. What they won't tell you is that Corzine personally contributed $25,000 to the Union Dems recently. The Union Dems were doing Corzine's dirty work on Florio. The effect is still the same. The campaign gets uglier and more and more potential voters get turned off.

Maybe the worst part of all this is the effect it has on young people who we tell to look up to our leaders. The Florio-Corzine campaign is turning into another example of what is wrong with the current electoral process. The trash, slash and burn style of politics. Sure, Jim Florio started it. Fact is, he has perfected it and is proud of it. I'm sorry to say that "nice guy" millionaire Jon Corzine is about to be neck-high in the muck. Funny, I thought it might be different this time. Am I too idealistic? Fax me at (973) 509-1659 or e-mail me at sadubato@aol.com.

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