FOUR YEARS ago, as he was making his mid-life career move from Wall Street to the U.S. Senate, Jon Corzine appeared at a press conference to accept the endorsement of the Black Ministers Council of New Jersey. As the gathering wore on, a reporter asked a telling question: Did Corzine contribute any money to the council?
The inference was obvious - that the mega-wealthy Corzine paid the ministers for their endorsement in what was then a hotly contested Democratic senatorial primary race with former Gov. Jim Florio.
Corzine stared at the floor, silent. A minister from Garfield, the Rev. Calvin McKinney, huffed, puffed and proclaimed he was hugely insulted by such a question. The black ministers are not for sale, the good reverend announced.
Well, guess what: The ministers may not have worn a price tag, but Corzine paid.
Before getting the council's support against Florio, Corzine slipped $25,000 to cover costs of the council's office on State Street in Trenton. Hearing later that he did not have all the facts before his sermon on the media, McKinney proclaimed he was distressed.
"I stood there, flat-footed, holding my ground," he said later, pointedly criticizing Corzine and the council's director, the Rev. Reginald Jackson, for not informing him of the $25,000 donation.
But for all his indignation , McKinney never demanded the money be returned. And it wasn't.
That story takes on greater meaning now. Indeed, with Jon Corzine, the story of his politics always seems irrevocably linked to his spending habits. Even when Bill Clinton stumped for Corzine last week, the former president could not resist mentioning Corzine's wealth.
"He could be off on some island somewhere, sipping a pina colada and spending his money," Clinton said.
If only politics were that simple. The truth is that New Jersey's Democrats face a difficult dilemma with Corzine's money. They love knowing Corzine will finance campaigns and party functions. Yet, Democrats privately say they are embarrassed that one man has risen to the top of the party, not by the force of his ideas, but by the size of his wallet.
Corzine, too, huffs and puffs, and dismisses such accusations. After all, who wants to be known as a guy who pays for loyalty?
But facts are facts. And so, let's now return to the odd relationship between Corzine and the Black Minister's Council - and what it says about politics in this state.
Remember McKinney's declaration about not being for sale? Well, after things quieted and Corzine was elected to the Senate, the good reverend got $1.8 million in donations and loans in 2003 from Corzine's philanthropic foundation to expand his Calvary Baptist Church in Garfield. In 2004, McKinney's church got another $2.3 million more in loans from Corzine's foundation.
That's more than $4 million in two years for just one church in Garfield. Doesn't anyone find that odd? Even North Jersey's wealthy Catholic parishes and Jewish synagogues rarely get that kind of cash from just one benefactor.
Corzine is not a Baptist. But he is running for governor. Meanwhile, members of theBlack Ministers Council still insist they are not for sale. Well, can we all shout "hallelujah"?
What the ministers council doesn't realize is that it has become a political joke. Besides Corzine's donations to the Garfield church, he spread another $2 million to black churches around New Jersey before getting the council's endorsement. Doesn't anyone find that odd?
Even Democrats chuckle at the absurdity of the ministers taking so much money from Corzine yet proclaiming they can't be bought - then deftly hinting that critics are racists.
Of course, Democrats, fearing the loss of African-American voters, refuse to face this issue squarely and publicly.
"Horribly corrupt," is how one Democratic insider described the ministers' game of taking Corzine's money, then endorsing him. "Not corrupt in the sense that it's indictable, but certainly corrupt from an ethical point of view."
Whether the ministers actually put a price tag on their endorsements is beside the point. First, Corzine paid, then the ministers endorsed him. Duh? If the ministers value their honor, why take Corzine's money anyway? Even more fundamental, why should religious leaders endorse anyone in the gubernatorial race?
The ministers are either incredibly clueless or unspeakably callous. They seem to be daring federal and state authorities to launch a tax investigation of how they can retain their non-profit status as religious leaders while also playing politics in such an obvious manner. Worse perhaps, the ministers have proved critics to be right.
To understand this, look back to 1993. Republican Christie Whitman won the governor's seat from Democrat incumbent Jim Florio. Only days afterward, Whitman's daffy campaign manager, Ed Rollins, told journalists in Washington, D.C., that Republicans won by secretly paying black ministers to urge their congregations not to support Florio and other Democrats.
A member of the ministers council quickly denounced Rollins' tale as a "racist lie" and proclaimed that black voters are not for sale.
Rollins recanted. The accusation faded.
But now the question of buying black votes is back. And it raises this question for the ministers: Who are you kidding?
The ministers may not have a price tag. But Jon Corzine is paying.
Actually, that has been going on for as long as I can remember in this state (about 30 years). Most everyone knows about it yet nobody is willing to stop it. Thus, it continues...
Forester was right, Four more years of same old- same old. Isn't there a single decent person who could step up and run this state........ and country for that matter. It's enough to make me want to move to Bora Bora and live in a hut.
My theory is that the truely "good guys" in our midst would never consider a career in US politics. It is really the slime that floats on the top of our society that seeks these positions of power, as a general rule. This is especially true in NJ politics.
