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Corzine Must Face the “Katz Issue”
As any regular reader of my column knows, I have great respect for Governor Jon Corzine. On many levels he has restored public confidence in the governor’s office and is one of the most decent public servants around. As a very wealthy and successful businessman, he didn’t have to take the job or the grief that goes with it. Even those who disagree with the governor like him on a personal level, which is why there was such a great outpouring of concern after his April 12 auto accident. I have praised Governor Corzine in the past for being up front and candid about his mistakes, including the fact that he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt in his accident and that the car driven by a state trooper was going way too fast. However, if the governor were to ask me for advice on how to handle the “Carla Katz situation,” I would tell him several things. For the record, I’m currently finishing up a book on crisis communication and how to deal with the media when under pressure. To date, the governor has argued that his previous romantic relationship with Carla Katz—who is a leader with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), which is the largest public employee union in the state—is a personal matter. (Full Disclosure: the CWA is one of several underwriters to a series called Democracy Works that I anchor on public television and has included interviews with Governor Jon Corzine.) During the 2005 campaign it was disclosed that Corzine had forgiven a loan of $470,000 to Katz, the value of a mortgage that enabled her to buyout her ex-husband of a Hunterdon County home. Corzine won the election easily in spite of that controversy, but the issue has never gone away and Corzine has continued to be pretty tight-lipped about the Carla Katz issue. But now The New York Times has gotten involved and has blown the lid off this story, even though the U.S. Attorney’s Office and a state ethics panel has said there were no ethical violations on the part of Governor Corzine or Carla Katz. The Times’ story is a powerful one. I am not convinced it would have ever gotten to this point if the governor had opted to proactively and voluntarily disclosed all the relevant details himself including a series of e-mails between himself and Katz that apparently addressed contract talks between the state and the CWA. Further, The New York Times has reported that lawyers representing Corzine and Katz got involved to help them work out a financial settlement after they broke up in 2004. According to The Times, anonymous sources said that the settlement reached was over $6 million. I find that very hard to believe, but no one is denying it. The governor will again argue that it is his private business how much he gave Carla Katz because he gave it to her before he became governor. Technically he is right, however, Jon Corzine has set a higher bar for his administration on the issue of ethics and for that he deserves tremendous credit. While the ethics panel last month and U.S. Attorney Chris Christie before that said the governor did nothing ethically wrong, there was a significant perception problem here and the governor has to know that. According to The New York Times, when Jim McGreevey announced that he was going to resign and Jon Corzine became the favorite to become governor, “the couple was in the midst of breaking up, one former confidant and colleague said, and Ms. Katz threatened to stage a news conference designed to embarrass Mr. Corzine, but soon calmed down.” The implication in The New York Times article is clear—that whatever settlement was reached between the governor and Carla Katz was intended to keep her quiet. It also infers that Carla Katz has the potential to embarrass the governor. Let me be clear. For too long too many of us in the media have delved into and written about the private lives of public officials. That’s not my game. It’s not the public’s business and up until this point, I have consistently said that whatever relationship Corzine and Katz had before he became governor was a personal matter. The only part I’m interested in involves the public’s business. The only concern the rest of us should have is whether the governor was in any way influenced to make certain decisions or act in a specific way because of his financial relationship with Carla Katz. But this $6 million settlement reached by attorneys representing the two parties complicates things on many levels. Further, the e-mails that went back and forth between the governor and Katz during the labor talks are perplexing. Carla Katz’s own CWA colleagues have criticized the e-mails she sent to the governor, however, neither party has said those e-mails will be made public in spite of media pressure to do so. The bottom line on the Corzine-Katz affair is that it just doesn’t look good. It is an issue of perception. Jon Corzine is still one of the most honest governors this state has ever had. He has integrity and he cares. He is also the kind of leader that isn’t afraid to admit when he is wrong. However, this story has wound up on the front page of The New York Times and now, in turn, everywhere else. This is in part because the governor has been reluctant to voluntarily disclose certain details about his financial relationship with Carla Katz, which now appears to be a matter of public interest. This isn’t about legality or calls by Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson for Corzine to resign over this matter. That is absurd. Republicans are desperate and being out of control for so long has clouded their judgment. But this is no small matter and my unsolicited advice to the governor is that when he is up to it physically, and probably emotionally, he should hold a press conference and answer any and all questions about his financial relationships with Carla Katz that in any way has public implications. Until he does that, this situation is only going to get worse and the stories and the innuendos won’t stop. That’s not good for the governor and that’s not good for New Jersey. What do you think? Write to me at sadubato@aol.com Steve Adubato, Ph.D. is a commentator, lecturer and former state
legislator. Dr. Adubato is also an Emmy Award-winning television
anchor and syndicated columnist.
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