Can't Buy Me Love

So say the Beatles, anyway. But who needs love when it can buy you a Senate seat and, perhaps, a four year lease at Drumthwacket, with a four year renewal option?

According to the polls, Jon Corzine reigns as New Jersey’s most popular politician. Which simply proves that form trumps substance every time. A seemingly amiable man – one can object to another’s politics without hating him, Moveon.org, Michael Moore, and the rest of the Angry Left to the contrary notwithstanding – Corzine’s reputation bears no relationship whatsoever to any record of accomplishment. Indeed, from the perspective of the state, and of the nation, Corzine is about as irrelevant as it’s possible for a United States Senator to be.

Aside from raising money – it DOES help to have rich friends – Corzine’s accomplishments as a Senator could be written on a matchbook cover, with lots of space to spare. And his platform for seeking the governorship is briefer still. So far as I can gather, he has uttered not one word about property taxes, spending, the structural deficit, or any other issue of importance to New Jersey voters.

Corzine’s candidacy demonstrates one of the many gaping holes in the Democrats’ much touted but almost entirely ineffectual “ethics” campaign: the ability of a wealthy candidate to buy campaign organizations.

Corzine himself points out that 75% of candidates “with means” lose. God – and a fickle electorate – willing, that observation will prove prophetic. But it’s abundantly clear that New Jersey candidates with means need not buy an electorate; they need purchase only about a dozen Democratic Party bosses.

And these folks Corzine owns, lock, stock, and barrel.

The power brokers in New Jersey have, in effect, sold the Party Line to the highest bidder. An experienced, seemingly capable man, like Richard Codey, who doesn’t happen to be a gazillionaire, couldn’t hope to compete. To the men (and a few women) who control the Democratic Party organizations, issues mattered not. Not one of them asked about Corzine’s position on property tax reform, his thoughts on the proposed constitutional convention, his ideas on auto insurance. Not one of these bosses cared one whit about Corzine’s vague platitudes on ethics – which sound disturbingly like Jim McGreevey’s promise to “change the way Trenton does business”.

No. All they cared about was money.

A few million over the course of four years, doled out in $37,000 increments, by Jonny and his Mommy, and the nomination is his. Considering his last electoral foray cost him $65 million or so, he must be all atwitter at the bargain basement price for which he purchased the Democratic nomination this time around.

Fancy that. No messy campaign to wage. No bother with crafting a message. No unpleasant obligation to actually have to persuade the voters. No issues with which to wrestle. And, in this fairly reliably blue state, just ignore the Republican candidate and coast to victory in a general election campaign based upon generalizations, banalities, and platitudes.

(While I certainly HOPE such will not be the result – the typical pundit’s hostility to the field of Republican candidates notwithstanding, they are a solid and accomplished group, any one of whom would be preferable to Corzine – the voters here in New Jersey have, heretofore, proved immune to the Democrats’ attempts to insult their intelligence)

Presumably, the same travesty could beset the GOP, although our willingness to defer to the wisdom of anointed Party chieftains pales in comparison to that of the Democratic electorate, and our rich folks tend to hang on to their money (which, presumably, is how they got, and stay, that way.)

Rich folks, clearly, should be able to spend their money on whatever they like, and if the people choose to be led by such folks, such is democracy.

But we labor under absolutely no obligation to make the purchase price of an election a fire sale special. We could, at the very least, make someone “of means” spend his money trying to persuade the electorate rather than the blessing of the coven of a dozen.

My Brother Assemblyman, Richard Merkt, has proposed legislation which would effect precisely this salutary goal. The party bosses have but one thing to sell: the Party line. Merkt’s proposal would eliminate the “Party Line” and sloganeering for candidates.

This proposal defangs Party bosses, or, at least, makes their imprimatur substantially less valuable. County organizations would still be free to endorse, as they see fit, but that endorsement would NOT be communicated to the voter by the State of New Jersey at taxpayer expense. This would give candidates, like Governor Codey, a fighting chance against a man with a titanic wallet. It would, in theory, enable someone to win on the issues, without the support of easily purchased county bosses.

Well, perhaps that’s too harsh. County bosses, like love, may not be for sale. But, like love, they can be rented, and under much the same circumstances. A paltry handful of easily rentable political bosses ought not be permitted to stand between the people and a real election.

Although the Governor’s Party loyalty cannot be questioned – nor is it dishonorable – perhaps, having now seen any ambition he might have had to seek the governor’s office in his own right torpedoed by a real-life version of pay-to-play, he will conclude that good government is ill served by permitting elections to be bought by greasing a few powerful palms. An Executive Order banning this noxious practice, and securing passage of Assemblyman Merkt’s legislation, would go a long way toward restoring democracy and making elections referenda on issues, not on bankrolls.