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BY JIM GOODMAN
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
COMMENTARY
Alexis de Tocqueville may have outraged a few Americans in the 1830s when he asserted in his classic study of the young republic, ‘Democracy In America,' that political corruption was already a life-giving element of the system.
But today, in the 21st Century, the French historian's observations surprise no one.
That is, except for those indignant commentators and headline writers who are touting the latest New Jersey political scandal as an unprecedented betrayal of the public trust.
Actually, the arrests were something that just had to happen. New York's philandering ex-governor and the baby-faced former governor from the land of Lincoln, have monopolized the celebrity-corruption spotlight for too long.Sure, they have faced a degree of competition provided by conservative Republican congressmen, but voters have come to expect that from congressmen.
And the betrayals, assuming that the charges hold up in court, are eerie reminders of the arrests, indictments and convictions that convulsed New Jersey in the 1970s.
That's not to say that the TV tapes that show some 40 defendants – politicians, public officials and rabbis being marched single file into a federal courthouse in shackles – lacked shock value. It looked like a scene from the Spanish Inquisition, New Jersey style. The fact that the charges involved a small group of conservative rabbis established new standards in political creativity in the Garden State.
Speculation is that since most of the indicted politicians are Democrats and that federal agents have raided the home and offices of Bayonne Democrat Joe Doria, the scandal could help GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie's campaign to deny a second term to Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine.
Doria's fate could be critical to Corzine. The former Assembly speaker and Bayonne mayor was Corzine's community affairs commissioner, running one of the most politically sensitive offices in Corzine's cabinet; one that exerts enormous influence over state-financed projects for municipalities.
That's why Corzine demanded – and got – Doria's resignation within hours of the federal raid.
It also raises once more the question of whether of not the state attorney general has been tough enough on political corruption, an issue Democrats raised against a Republican governor, Christie Whitman, only eight years ago.
Often, the issues that surface in the summer of an election year fade in November. If the economy stays in the doldrums, voters may care little about alleged bribes in small cities. But never before has a political party chosen a prosecutor with a record like Christie's for jailing public officials.
Republican Gov. William T. Cahill was the first incumbent not to win re-election. That was in 1977, when Cahill's administration was shattered by the indictments of a secretary of state and state treasurer. The charges grew out of a bid-rigging contract attempt that was supposed to benefit a contractor who contributed to Cahill's 1969 campaign.
The investigation showed that Cahill's campaign committee advised contributors that they could make donations to the Cahill campaign and write them off as business expenses on income tax returns.
Turned out that Democrats had been doing the same thing. Indictments followed and top Democrats were indicted on the same charges stemming from Democratic Gov. Richard Hughes' two winning campaigns.
Cahill lost a Republican primary to Charlie Sandman who ran an inept campaign against Democrat Brendan Byrne, a former prosecutor and judge who was hailed as the one politician who couldn't be bought.
No evidence was ever introduced indicating that either Cahill or Hughes had any involvement in the illegal campaign schemes. Byrne won election by a record 700,000-vote plurality.
At the time, New Jersey was touted as the most-corrupt state in the country. Byrne responded with campaign-finance reforms that provided two dollars of state funding for every dollar raised by candidates for governor – a system that lasted until Corzine, a mullet-millionaire, coifed up $60 million of his own money to become Governor four years ago.
When Byrne tried to extend state campaign funding to legislative elections, his Democrat-controlled legislature refused to act.
Another opportunity for state politicians to reform themselves was lost.
Tocqueville was an optimist in the 19th Century. He noted the corruption he saw in America but said its citizens had a wonderful way of self-correcting themselves.
Maybe not.
