'09 Battleground: Conga Line of Dem Corruption in New Jersey

The Conga Line of corruption in New Jersey has been leading more and more Democrat elected officials first to the court room, then to the GreyBar Hotel. Yesterday, the Conga Line grew by one as the New Jersey Attorney General announced the indictment of a sitting New Jersey Assemblyman for using his legislative office to obtain, view and distribute child pornography. The question for Republicans is convincing the public that they are not just more of the same.

Over the past seven years, New Jersey residents have watched one public official after another caught and convicted of public corruption, forced to resign their office in disgrace, then shuttled off to prison. The Garden State has seen the conviction of such leading lights as Sharpe James, mayor of the state’s most populous city and a powerful state senator; Wayne Bryant, a powerful south Jersey state senator and holder of more public jobs than he could count; John Lynch, former state senate President and patron of former Governor Jim McGreevey.

Indeed, former Governor Jim McGreevey himself resigned in 2004 under a cloud of scandal. His stated reason for resignation was the revelation that he was a “Gay American”. However, his resignation coincided with the revelation that McGreevey was an unidicted co-conspirator in a corrupt land deal in his home county.

Despite the very public prosecution of these high profile Democrats and a host of lesser Democrat crooks in Essex, Hudson, Camden, Atlantic and Bergen Counties, the Democrats remain the majority party in New Jersey. The Democrats hold the governor’s office and both houses of the legislature. Democrats occupy both U.S. Senate seats and have upped their majority in the House delegation to 8-5. They have taken control of county governments in the former GOP strongholds of Bergen County and Monmouth County, and consolidated their control in other counties.

Why is it that they can continue to make the state more and more blue each year?

Answer number one is money. Former Goldman Sachs CEO Jon Corzine ran successfully for U.S. Senate in 2000. Since that time he has used his personal fortune to underwrite liberal causes, local Democrat organizations and local Democrat candidates across the state. He has invested as much as two hundred million of his own dollars in the New Jersey Democratic Party. The Corzine investment has made the organization flush with cash at all levels.

Answer number two is demographics. New Jersey’s demogaphics have changed dramatically. Its population has been in decline both in absolute numbers and in numbers relative to the rest of the nation. New Jerseyans are moving out of the state to the west and the south. Those emigrants tend to be more conservative and affluent. New Yorkers are migrating in. Those immigrants tend to the Democrat side. Further, the Hispanic and Asian communities have coalesced around the Democrats. The result is that the Republican base has shrunk in New Jersey.

Answer number three is cynicism. There are many voters in urban areas who have a Machiavellian approach to corruption: “Sure, my politician is corrupt, but who cares? He/she gets things done for us.” Others dismiss claims about Dem corruption with the answer that the Republicans are no different.

Answer number four is politics. Republicans held the majority from 1991 through 2001. They ran on the core conservative principles of lower taxes, less government and more family, then gradually abandoned those principles. Where the New Jersey Dems were the tax-and-spend party, the New Jersey GOP became the borrow-and-spend party

New Jersey will be one of two or three marquis races nation wide next year. New Jersey Republicans have an opportunity to score an upset, thanks to the fiscal nightmare that has continued on the Dems’ watch and to the Conga Line of corruption. New Jersey Republicans must unite around the candidate who wins the primary, and must also rally around the conservative principles that make the party great.

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