Unlucky and Aloof, Corzine Fell Short of Trenton Goals

By David Kocieniewski

His concession speech on Tuesday sounded almost like a sigh of relief.

Considering the career trajectory of Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey, a man who spent more than $130 million of his fortune on three campaigns but never seemed comfortable operating in the spotlight most politicians relish, it was not surprising, his supporters say, that one of Mr. Corzine’s most eloquent speeches came as he accepted his humiliating defeat.

Mr. Corzine, whose liberal politics made him a misfit on Wall Street, made a brash and expensive debut to elective office by capturing a United States Senate seat in 2000, then five years later seizing the chance to capture the throne of the state’s politics, the governor’s office.

Yet he seemed equally miscast in Trenton, where allies and adversaries considered him too aloof to fully engage in the daily tussle of governing.

Mr. Corzine suffered setbacks that were not entirely of his own making. A car crash almost killed him halfway through his term, and forced him to spend months recuperating. Soon afterward, the worst financial climate since the Depression swept the state, forcing him to make unpopular choices.

In the end, Mr. Corzine fell short of what he had set out to accomplish, deeply disappointing many New Jerseyans who embraced the promise of a Wall Street executive whose business acumen would fix a mismanaged state and bring relief to taxpayers.

“He’s a nice man with good intentions, but in the end he’ll be remembered for timidity,” said Ross K. Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University. “Being a business titan and issuing orders from the corner office is a lot different than having to cajole and persuade people in politics and having the toughness and fortitude to see your vision become reality.”

State Democratic leaders never truly accepted Mr. Corzine, but were willing to accommodate him — so long as his fat wallet bankrolled their machinery and his soft-hearted policies mollified labor leaders and party activists.

To his credit, Mr. Corzine kept enough of a distance from party bosses that he avoided any taint of personal corruption, even as a succession of New Jersey Democratic officials were investigated — and in many cases, convicted — for cashing in on their offices.

But while his wealth allowed him to fulfill an early campaign promise to be “unbought and unbossed,” Mr. Corzine was not unbullied.

The governor’s inability to stare down the state’s free-spending Legislature and its public employee unions doomed his efforts to straighten out New Jersey’s troubled finances and undermined the business credentials he was supposed to bring to the job.

And his awkwardness in public and his reluctance to claim credit for the successes he did achieve made it hard for voters to connect with him, and contributed to his loss on Tuesday to Christopher J. Christie, a Republican and a former federal prosecutor.

“Jon spoke sincerely about a lot of things people believed in deeply, like abolishing the death penalty, helping get more insurance for children, changing the way the school funding formula works,” said State Senator Raymond J. Lesniak, a Democrat. “But when times are hard and people are worried about supporting their families, they don’t necessarily listen to that. Or if they listen, they don’t vote that way.”

Mr. Corzine made a bold entry into politics. As a successful businessman proposing sweeping social programs — universal health care, universal college tuition, universal prekindergarten education — he impressed some Democrats as a leader who could usher in an era of business-friendly progressivism.

But as a junior senator in a body known more for deliberation than decisiveness, his programs went nowhere. After leading the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee during a cycle when Democrats lost four seats, he left the Senate, where his most noteworthy achievement was his effort to shape a corporate ethics bill.

In Trenton, Mr. Corzine signed bills granting paid family leave, curbing the practice of dual office-holding and so-called pay to play, and abolishing the death penalty. And New Jersey was one of the first states to enact an economic stimulus program after last fall’s financial collapse.

But Mr. Corzine’s attempt to enforce his will on the lawmakers by shutting down the state government in 2006 to win approval of a sales tax increase was unpopular, and became a symbol of his pliability when the governor granted more than $300 million in pet projects to legislators in order to win their votes.

His most ambitious fiscal proposal, a plan to sell and lease back the New Jersey Turnpike, generated an intense backlash, and was ultimately scuttled because it would have required an 800 percent toll increase.

Mr. Corzine’s supporters say that considering the budget mess he inherited, combined with a severe recession, the governor deserves credit for trying to restore fiscal responsibility to state government.

“Jon Corzine showed a lot of courage in doing what will benefit New Jersey for years to come,” said Gov. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania, “and he paid a price for it.”

As Mr. Corzine’s poll numbers sagged, many New Jersey Democrats pushed him not to seek a second term. After Mr. Cozine’s defeat, Richard J. Codey, the Senate president, revealed that, as recently as July, the governor considered dropping out of the race, as Democrats from Trenton to the White House worried that his bid was a lost cause.

Although President Obama campaigned with Mr. Corzine several times, turnout in Democratic areas where the president remains popular was too low for the governor, measured against the flood of Republicans and independents who opposed him.

Mr. Corzine has not made a public appearance or responded to repeated requests for an interview in the days since his concession speech, and his spokesman said he was not certain when the governor would resume a public schedule.

In an interview during the final weeks of the campaign, however, Mr. Corzine was philosophical when asked what he might do if he lost, saying it would probably involve some mix of business and philanthropy. “I’ve got grandchildren,” he said with a laugh, “so I’ll keep busy.”

This article "Unlucky and Aloof, Corzine Fell Short of Trenton Goals" originally appeared at The New York Times.