Steve Kornacki has a fascinating piece on the decline of the New Jersey Democratic party, and he pins it on Jon Corzine and his money:
“They want to go with Corzine,” a Pallone aide was quoted saying. “They are dazzled by the money.”
For rank-and-file Democrats, the advent of Candidate Corzine was never actually all that exciting. His positions were boilerplate liberal, no different from Florio’s—but at least Florio could articulate them with some punch. And at least Florio had a history of delivering results. A familiar storyline took hold: Corzine would cut a check and win a major Democratic group’s backing, but when he’d actually show up to visit with the group, the party regulars would be disappointed, even resentful.
“He is pulling up to towns with a dumpster filled with bags of money and leaving two bags here and five in Jersey City and Newark,” one Hudson County Democrat complained to a reporter.
The whole thing is worth a read, because it’s a beat reporting tour de force by someone who clearly knows Jersey politics.
(via Jim Newell)
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