NJ Nomination Comes Down To $$$$

Florio, Corzine fight through final debate in Democratic primary race

Except for the spending, the New Jersey race for the Democratic Senate nomination between Jim Florio and Jon Corzine seems to be all over.

With only two weeks to go, they quarreled their way through their fourth debate in eight days Thursday night. Corzine continued to refuse to participate in a fifth debate that would have been the only one broadcast on network television affiliates.

A former executive at the Goldman Sachs, Corzine plans on focusing the final two weeks of his campaign on spending as much as $4 million on TV commercials while his adversary is expected to launch his own TV ad blitz to match what Corzine has been doing for two months.

Florio criticized Corzine's refusal to attend the network televised debate, commenting "If you are going to spend $2 million a week on television beating me up, come and have the guts to discuss whether he supports property tax relief or not."

In rebuttal, Corzine replied "I just think the debate about the debates is not focused on prescription drug benefits and the kinds of things people want to hear candidates talk about."

Linda Munich of WPVI-TV said airtime has been reserved and they would be able to schedule the debate up until the last minute if Corzine were to change his mind.

Florio had been aiming in four debates over the past week to throw his less experienced opponent off balance or to goad him into a mistake. Instead, during Thursday's debate, Florio had to recover from an unexpected mistake of his own.

The New Jersey Jewish News weekly newspaper released a tape recording this week showing Florio explicitly supporting the idea of investing Social Security funds in the stock market. He expressed his support at a forum in May 1999 before Corzine was in the race.

Ever since Corzine made a bid for the Senate seat and proposed investment of Social Security funds, Florio has centered caustic attacks against Corzine on the issue, doing it again Thursday night.

"The transcript that came out clearly indicates I misspoke. I did not think it was a good idea in the past. I do not think it is a good idea now," Florio said. "Volatility is not compatible with security."

Corzine said the disclosure of the remarks destroyed Florio's credibility. "Today we have learned that for an entire year, he has been misleading the voters about his position on Social Security."

"For my opponent, the truth sometimes is a political inconvenience," Corzine went on to say. "He says he has experience money can't buy. The truth is he has given us an experience we would rather forget."

Florio continued to try to depict Corzine as untrustworthy because his previous work at Goldman Sachs conflicts with the promises he is making now, for instance, regarding gun control.

"While I was taking on the gun lobby, Jon ws financing the gun industry," Florio said. "This whole thing comes down to if you send one of us to Washington, who is going to go down there to represent Wall Street, and who is going to go down there to represent Main Street."

Corzine replied, "I have a very, very strong position with regard to guns, and there is nothing in the history of Goldman Sachs that is going to limit my feeling on that."