Cold Cuts In N.J. Senate Race

Ex-Governor Jim Florio denounced former Wall Street executive Jon Corzine for heavy spending and lavish proposals on Thursday in the first debate in the New Jersey Democratic Senate primary campaign.

During the first of four planned debates, the candidates squabbled over Social Security, racial profiling and the death penalty.

But another issue quickly rose to the forefront; Florio used Corzine's heavy spending to attack him. With three weeks left, Corzine has spent more than $10 million just in the primary, most of it in a blitz of TV commercials that could set national records for spending.

"We have someone who is going to put almost $1 million a week in negative TV ads that, by the way, reflect more a Republican message than a Democratic message," Florio said. "We have got to be able to have better ways of conducting campaigns so that it doesn't turn out to be just a money fight."

Corzine, who has the endorsement of retiring Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg and much of the state's Democratic party, has fashioned his campaign around the slogan of "bold ideas," proposing to expand school programs and health insurance mandates. On Thursday, Florio accused him of "promising people the moon with no sense of how you pay for it."

"This is not bold, this is baloney," said Florio.

Corzine said he supports gradually investing Social Security funds in the stock market, up to 15 percent of the total reserve, saying market gains will shore up the strength of retirement benefits. He called it the Clinton-Corzine plan.

Florio denounced the proposal as a benefit mainly to Wall Street brokers to "play with our money" at the risk of great losses. He claimed that Mr. Clinton and Al Gore have already denounced it.

Mr. Clinton last year proposed stock-market investment for Social Security, and the idea was included in his budget proposal now before Congress. But the president has backed off in the face of congressional opposition and to give Gore leeway to attack George W. Bush, for his stock-market investment proposal.

A newcomer to elections and debates, Corzine stumbled and fumbled nervously for some answers, unable to match the veteran Florio's clipped statements and direct attacks. But he also avoided any significant blunder that could haunt him in the final three weeks of the campaign. The primary is June 6.