After Setbacks, NJ Governor Corzine Looks to Make Up for Lost Time

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: After Setbacks, Corzine Looks to Make Up for Lost Time
By DAVID W. CHEN
Published: December 6, 2007

TRENTON, Dec. 5 — Battered by a year of personal and political hardships, Gov. Jon S. Corzine is struggling to catch a second wind. “I think the next six months are extraordinarily important in being able to bring to fruition a lot of the things we’ve been working on,” Mr. Corzine said in a recent interview. “And on that score I’m optimistic.”

In April, just as Mr. Corzine began to embark on an ambitious agenda, he was severely injured in a traffic accident and then endured months of painful rehabilitation. Through it all, he faced mounting criticism from Republicans and fellow Democrats and opposition from the public over his proposal to slash the state’s debt by refinancing its toll roads. He also fended off persistent questions about whether his dealings with a former companion, who is also an influential labor leader, had improperly intruded into the public’s business.

He seemed especially deflated last month, longtime friends and allies say, after voters rejected a ballot initiative to borrow $450 million to finance stem cell research, something on which he had invested his time, his influence and $150,000 of his own money. “I believe that Jon probably is not as confident in his ability to get things done than when he first took office,” said State Senator Raymond J. Lesniak, a Union County Democrat who is a close friend of Mr. Corzine’s. “I think he’s come to the realization that being governor of the state of New Jersey is not the same as being chairman of Goldman Sachs. But I want to add that doesn’t mean he’s any less determined.”

Now, as he approaches the midpoint of his first term and braces for a pivotal stretch, the political establishment here agrees that he has a only few months to fill in his record before re-election considerations are likely to intrude....

So the governor has begun to roll out his biggest initiatives. The outlines of a formula for financing public schools that will require $400 million to $500 million in additional state aid emerged last week. And his long-awaited plan to raise billions for debt reduction by squeezing more money from the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway through bonds backed by higher tolls is to be unveiled early next month. Still, because these and other plans have taken a long time to formulate, he has opened the door to criticism from legislators, lobbyists and allies about what they call his administration’s lack of productivity, forcing him to court the public and the press more aggressively....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/nyregion/06corzine.html

[Beacool]

1. I'm glad that he caught his "second wind".

Governor Corzine and senator Menendez are my neighbors, we all live in tiny Hoboken. The "mile square city" is the birth place of Frank Sinatra.