Governor Focuses on Fiscal Health of N.J.

Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, has acknowledged the hard choices but insists: "We've borrowed until we're blue in the face. We've got to change." (By Daniel Acker -- Bloomberg News)

"I don't think the public was willing to join me in paying down the debt," Corzine said in an interview between appointments. "I was probably too aggressive in what I was trying to accomplish."

Similarly, his idea to cut state aid to the smallest New Jersey towns, as an incentive to get them to merge, was shelved after an uproar from local officials. The experience left him chastened. "Home rule is another one of those things, like taxes," that is difficult to touch, he said.

The effort prompted one former small-town mayor, Carl Bergmanson of Glen Ridge, to begin collecting signatures for a referendum to have Corzine recalled. Bergmanson said he has collected "boxes and boxes" of signatures but is still probably a long way from the 1.2 million names he needs to force the issue in November. "He'd better pray his name's not on there," said Bergmanson, who runs the Web site RecallCorzineNow.com. "He'd lose in a landslide."

The budget battles have taken a toll on Corzine's public image. He was elected in 2005 with 54 percent of the vote. But a poll taken this month by Quinnipiac University showed that 52 percent of New Jersey voters disapprove of the job Corzine is doing, with 38 percent approving.

In that poll, 66 percent of New Jersey residents said the state's budget problem is "very serious." But Corzine does not seem to be getting any credit for trying to tackle the issue; 57 percent of voters said they disapprove of the way he is handling the budget issue.

"His problems are very much tied to the budget," said Clay Richards, Quinnipiac's assistant director of polling. "They know it's a big problem, and they don't like what the governor is doing."

Corzine deals with his freefall in the opinion polls with black humor. At the AFL-CIO convention, he began his remarks by saying, "It's great to be with friends -- I've been looking for a few."

Commenting on the union president's unanimous reelection, Corzine quipped, "I read the papers, and I don't think unanimous is in the offing for my reelection." The gubernatorial election will be held next year.

In the interview, Corzine was accepting of his low approval rating and was resigned to the fact that doing what he considers right may make him a one-term governor.

"I might not get reelected," he said. "It might not make you popular. But if we're ever going to get out from this conundrum of heavy debt load and overspending, then somebody has to take this on.

"I would have failed the public if I didn't take this issue on," Corzine added. Declining to blame his predecessors, he called the state's fiscal mess "a systemic issue" that grew over time because of a reluctance to raise taxes, a failure to adequately invest and past reliance on financial "gimmicks," such as using one-time surpluses like revenue.

"If I change how we do business in the state, and at least set us on a track to fiscal responsibility, then I'll feel I've made a lot of inroads," he said, adding: "Two terms would help me do that."

Also, Corzine, 61, a multimillionaire who spent $100 million on his campaigns for the Senate and for governor, has a different perspective than most politicians: He said that he does not want to make politics a career, and that he sees himself as one of the "citizen politicians" of old. He said he is looking forward to spending more time with his three grandchildren when he is no longer governor. And surviving a serious traffic accident last year has given him a new outlook on life.

"I want to get reelected. But it shouldn't be the defining element," he said, sounding almost reflective. "I'm not looking for a job when I get done with this."