The mud is continuing to fly in the New Jersey gubernatorial race. During this round, it’s the Republicans throwing it at Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, while also firing back at Dem attacks over GOP nominee Chris Christie’s very spotty driving record.
The Star-Ledger reported that Corzine may indirectly have a financial interest in casinos, though even here it’s not all that solid. The issue is that Corzine has hedge fund holdings in a company that also own casinos — and it’s against the law in New Jersey for state officials to have business relationships with casino operators.
The hedge fund’s parent company says that the casino operations and the hedge fund are managed “totally independently,” though the Ledger points out that they share the same address and some of the same staff. The Corzine camp says that Corzine has fully reported his assets in the hedge fund, and that he is not in violation of any laws.
State GOP Tom Wilson isn’t satisfied. “Any way you slice it, Jon Corzine has run afoul of the law and certainly afoul of the standard he set for himself,” he told the Ledger. And Christie himself is speaking out: “The real possibility of law breaking should have prevented Jon Corzine from putting his personal financial gain ahead of his role as Governor.”
Of course, Christie has had to deal with his own financial issues: An undisclosed loan he’d made to a subordinate in the U.S. Attorney’s office, which he did not report on either state or federal ethics disclosure forms, and did not pay taxes on income he’d gained from it.
In other news, Christie has perfected a comeback line over attacks against his car accidents and other traffic violations during his years as U.S. Attorney: “You can’t laugh about a man who’s so desperate to hold onto power that he would rather talk about my driving record than how he has driven taxes through the roof and driven people out of our state.”
Welcome to your standard New Jersey election, in which everyone argues over which candidate is more ethically conflicted and tainted!
