NY Times - Excerpts From Interviews With Corzine and Christie

Interview

NY Times - Excerpts From Interviews With Corzine and Christie

Two reporters for The New York Times, David M. Halbfinger and David Kocieniewski, conducted wide-ranging interviews with the major-party candidates for governor of New Jersey, Jon S. Corzine, the Democratic incumbent, and Christopher J. Christie, his Republican challenger. Following are some edited excerpts.

Jon S. Corzine

The Economy

Q. Given all the factors we know, and the uncertainties, what do you really think you can get accomplished in your next term?

A. The most important issue that impacts what you can get done is, are we going to get a national economic recovery that comes sooner and comes stronger to the state? I believe we've positioned ourselves for that.

We're dealing with a world where the nation's lost 7.25 million jobs and we've lost our 180,000, and so that colors a lot. And if that doesn't change, well, your primary focus is going to be, how do you do the best you can for your citizens, how do you make sure that services are delivered to the best extent possible, with shrinking revenues?

Negative Campaigning

Q. Let's talk about the tone of the race.

A. Do you remember the 2005 race? That was a lot of fun. I don't remember it being so calm, or nice, or user-friendly.

Q. But there's a sense in this race that Christie's getting hit more on personal stuff -- his driving record, "throwing his weight around."

A. What we have tried to do is say that there has been a consistent pattern of playing by one set of rules for him and another for everybody else. ... The issue is whether the chief law enforcement officer in the state of New Jersey has consistently applied the law evenly and fairly and consistently for all parties.

There was this claim that he was a white knight, right?

Q. But what that gets to is not what he'd be like as governor, or his policies -- it's his character. The thesis of it is that he's two-faced, he's a hypocrite.

A. I'm not saying that. I'm saying he is not the change agent he's trying to make himself out to be. Look, I see tough campaigns everywhere across the country. I don't know what you're supposed to do -- sit here and just get crushed?

Money and Corruption

Q. Do you regret being as free with your checkbook as you have been?

A. We have people who at least from their political agenda, with respect to public policy, support the ideas that I believe in. I regret that some of the people who are involved in this business that I got into. But it's not like I like this environment, where you don't know ----

Q. Who's wearing a wire?

A. I try to carry myself in a way, given what has gone on around here, I obviously am not breaking any of those rules, because three-quarters of the people I come into contact with are either wearing a wire or accused of it. But it's troubling.

It has given me the independence to be able to talk about the things I want and try to get the agenda done. And I could turn my back on all those folks, some of whom are perfectly reasonable. I'm not talking about the guys that have gotten arrested. But not everybody in politics is a crook. And unfortunately you don't give people lie-detector tests and then ask them for their vote in the legislature.

Unpopularity

A. Taking on change doesn't come easily. I guarantee you, it's an experience that I know from Goldman Sachs. It would have been nice, I could have stayed there probably another 10 years: all I had to do was not take on the status quo.

Q. Do you ever regret leaving the Senate?

A. [Shaking his head to say no.] I don't want to be an 80-year-old politician.

Q. What do you plan to do when you're done?

A. I've got grandkids. I want to work. Got a lot of stuff to do.

Christopher J. Christie

A ‘Trust Me' Campaign

Q. Part of your campaign has been about you, and you're saying "Trust me, I got it done as a U.S. attorney, I'm not going to give you every detail but I got it done before and I'll get it done again." So you've left them that opening to attack your credibility.

A. But that's who I am, David, that's who I am.

Q. Given the cynicism, though, that New Jersey voters have with everything that's happened, is it fair, is it effective to say, ‘Trust me"?

A. Those are two different questions. Is it fair? Yes. Is it effective? We'll see.

Q. Do you in retrospect wish you had put out a more detailed tax plan?

A. No. I put out detailed spending plans and cuts I would make and I put out 14 points on property taxes over a period of time that candidly were not extensively covered by the media.

Q. But you were forced to spell out the specifics.

A. I think the only specific that I added to it was what the dollar figure would be and by its very nature, all that stuff is speculative. The governor says there's going to be $2 billion in stimulus money. But what happens if there's $1.5 or if there's $3 billion?

Jon Corzine said 40 [percent increase in property tax rebates] in four [years]; that was a real big specific. We're still waiting. That was good politics. Was it good policy? I don't think he believed it when he said it, but it got him elected.

The State Supreme Court

Q. There are four State Supreme Court justices [to be named by the next governor]. Is there anything you could say to moderate or wavering Democratic voters to reassure them about what the shape of the Supreme Court would be at the end of your term?

A. I think that it would be different than it is now, and I don't think the way that the Supreme Court has operated on a number of issues has been helpful to the people of New Jersey. I don't think legislating from the bench is ever helpful. I think we should legislate from the Legislature.

Q. What issues do you think they've overreached and legislated from the bench on?

A. Abbott [v. Burke, which mandated parity in school financing for poor urban districts]. Mount Laurel [which required towns to build moderately priced housing]. Lautenberg-Torricelli [which allowed Frank R. Lautenberg to replace Robert G. Torricelli on the ballot for Senate after Mr. Torricelli withdrew weeks before the 2002 election.] Lautenberg-Torricelli is the greatest piece of legislation from the bench I've ever seen.

Wall Street

Q. You bashed Jon Corzine for his Wall Street background quite a bit. But is that fair when your wife makes a living on Wall Street and your brother's Wall Street money helped smooth your path up the Republican Party ladder?

A. Sure, because what I'm talking about is a certain philosophy that I don't think that my brother or my wife share with the governor.

When I'm talking about Wall Street I'm talking about his trader's mindset, which is: Evaluate the deal now, this trade, is it good or bad, and then move on without necessarily thinking all the time about what the long-term ramifications are, the long-term vision.

Q. Give us an example.

A. The toll roads plan. He was trying to characterize it as a solution to a whole bunch of problems when what I think it was something that was ill advised for the times. At the time he tried to take all these charts and graphs and make it this complex financial thing when in the end what it really was selling an asset to pay off debt. He used his financial background to complicate, and I think, cloud an issue.

The Third-Party Candidate

Q. Does it irritate you that Chris Daggett gotten as much attention as he's gotten?

A. You know me, David, I don't get irritated about anything.

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