N.J. Gubernatorial Election Examined

MADELEINE BRAND, host:

Let's go to New Jersey now, site of a recent jaw-dropping corruption scandal allegedly involving mayors, rabbis and black-market kidneys. There is also a governor's race going on. The election is this fall.

And here to talk about it is Paul Mulshine. He's a conservative columnist with the Star Ledger. And he joins us from member station WBGO in Newark, New Jersey.

Welcome to the program.

Mr. PAUL MULSHINE (Columnist, The Star Ledger): Thanks.

BRAND: Let's talk about Jon Corzine, the incumbent Democrat. He is fighting for his political life, from what I read in the polls. Why is he so behind?

Mr. MULSHINE: Well, he was never much of a politician. When he first jumped into politics in 2000 with his fortune he had made in Goldman Sachs, he won on pure money, a U.S. Senate seat. He only won 50 to 47, and he only won because that was a Democratic year in New Jersey. Bush lost New Jersey huge that year, so Corzine came in - on Al Gore's coattails, interestingly enough.

And then when he ran for governor, he again outspent his opponent by about 20 million, and his opponent wasn't very talented. So he didn't have two big wins under his belt. He's just gotten by pretty much on money. And now, he's in a situation where - since he's such a bad politician, he really has failed to connect with the people of New Jersey, and that's why he's in a lot of trouble.

BRAND: He's in a lot of trouble, and he's being challenged by former federal prosecutor Chris Christie. What do the polls say about the two of them?

Mr. MULSHINE: The latest poll today had Christie up 14 points, 50-36. Christie is doing very well in the polls. And if the election were held today, there's no doubt Christie would win. In fact, Christie's improved a little bit since July, so he is in a very good position at the moment. Corzine is sort of back on just the urban centers, and Christie is winning pretty much everything else at the moment.

BRAND: And do people like him, or do they not like Jon Corzine?

Mr. MULSHINE: They don't like Jon Corzine. They don't know Christie. And what Corzine is trying to do, in a series of attack ads, is paint Christie as just another sort of lawyer-politician who helps his buddies and goes after political prosecutions.

The other thing is, Christie is not a personally appealing guy, either. He's not a magnetic kind of charming guy the way, say, Jim McGreevey was…

BRAND: Mm-hmm, the former governor.

Mr. MULSHINE: …to mention another great New Jersey political figure.

BRAND: Well, you are a conservative columnist, so you think your sympathies would lie naturally with Chris Christie. But you wrote recently, in one of your columns, quote: Christie has revealed himself to be devoid of any political beliefs whatsoever. That's a pretty harsh assessment there.

Mr. MULSHINE: Well, he fits into the category of lawyer-politician that you see a lot of in New Jersey. I don't know about other states. But in New Jersey, you see a lot of these guys who are lawyers first, become politicians. It's very good for their law practices. And the Democratic lawyer-politicians are only slightly different than the Republican lawyer-politicians. They'll represent the regional interests. But in terms of being, say, a conservative, Christie could just as easily be a liberal if he was in a more liberal district.

BRAND: I talked earlier about the most recent corruption scandal to unfold in New Jersey, which was a headline grabber across the country involving allegedly the rabbis and the mayors and the kidneys. And it also allegedly involves someone in John Corzine's office. Is that going to damage him significantly?

Mr. MULSHINE: It should hurt him. That was Joe Doria, his community affairs commissioner - who wasn't charged, but whose office was searched that day by the FBI. Yes, that will hurt him.

And the other thing everyone says that's going to hurt him is so many of the politicians charged were in this urban core here, running from Hudson County down through Union County, where they need these guys for the get-out-the-vote effort, and they're going to be preoccupied defending themselves. So those things…

BRAND: These are Democratic strongholds?

Mr. MULSHINE: Yeah, those are really strong - you know, Hudson County is one of the strongest Democratic machines in the country and has a long and storied tradition of wonderful characters. Actually, they're kind of like the Chicago pols. They actually run the place pretty well. They just happen to be corrupt.

(Soundbite of laughter)

BRAND: So come November, are you expecting a change in the governor's mansion?

Mr. MULSHINE: You know, it's - I have a standard for this, which is when it reaches the point where I'll bet a six-pack of beer on something, I feel good about it, and I'm not yet at the point where I would bet a six-pack on this one.

BRAND: Paul Mulshine is a conservative columnist with the Star-Ledger. He joined us from Newark, New Jersey. Thank you very much.

Mr. MULSHINE: Thanks a lot. It was fun.

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