DISCLAIMER: This is just a profile of a Democratic elected official. While I may or may not agree with the politics of the selectee, this year long series will profile EVERY single elected Democrat on the Federal level, as well as state Governors. So no bitching about the selection, as the selection is random, and if you must bitch, feel free to do so in the Comments.
Today's Democrat of the Day is Sen. Jon Corzine.
The Senator is one of a growing number of Senators and Representatives that have diaries on the Daily Kos. His is here.
Jon Corzine was born on born January 1, 1947, in Taylorville, Christian County, Illinois. He graduated with an BA from the University of Illinois in 1969. He also, during the height of the Vietnam War no less, served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve from 1969 until 1975, rising to the rank of Sergeant in his infantry unit. (You know, we need to have a Kossack actually compare the service records of Democrats vs. Republicans. I am guessing that, by a factor of ten, more Democrats have served their country than Republicans.) Like our fellow Pastor Dan, Senator Corzine is a member of the Church of Christ, although he also indicates that he is nondenominational. As such, Bill Frist would declare him to be a heathen and against religion.
After his active duty in the Marine Corps, he began his career in finance, working as a portfolio analyst at the Continental Illinois National Bank in Chicago. He enrolled in the graduate business school of the University of Chicago in 1970, first attending classes at night. He received his MBA in 1973, and went to work at Bank Ohio, a regional bank in Columbus, Ohio.
In 1975, Senator Corzine was recruited by Goldman Sachs, the New York investment firm, and he and his family moved to New Jersey. He was named a partner at Goldman Sachs in 1980, and became chairman and chief executive officer in 1994. He left Goldman Sachs in May 1999 after successfully converting the investment firm from a private partnership to a public company.
Turning the private partnership into a public company was a turbulent time for Jon Corzine. Indeed, while the venture was successful, he was ousted by the Executive Committee of the company in 1999. Those events, plus his campaign to become Senator, were covered in a feature by Johanna Berkman in the New York Metro.
I encourage you all to read it. Here are some excerpts:
Early one morning, while we are sitting on the roof of the Robert Treat hotel complex in Newark, where he has rented an entire floor for his campaign headquarters, I ask him why he is running for office. "I have an interest in making a difference," he tells me. It is a rather flat response, but one that actually seems to be true. And though he, like fellow New Jerseyan Bill Bradley (Corzine is a Gore supporter), has yet to get specific about the issues, this much is on the record: Corzine is a pro-choice gun-control advocate with lofty goals. He wants to revisit universal health insurance, reconstruct the economic base of America's inner cities, and revamp the national public-education system so it provides equal opportunity for all.
Still, his liberal views are occasionally obscured by the very corporate way in which he expresses his ideas. He likens his campaign plan to a business plan. To explain why he is pro-union, he cites Charge & Ride, the co-op limousine service that Goldman Sachs uses, as an example of the good that unions can do. You know how you get in the car and the driver has no idea where he's going? If there was a union, it could train him. You know how you get in the car and it's dirty? The union might enforce cleanliness. I'm not surprised when he tells me that he misses his old firm.
Once in the Senate, Senator Corzine has had an interesting and eventful career. Some of his achievements:
- Establish federal security standards for chemical facilities
- Secured $100 million to protect the Highlands from development. The Highlands is a critical region that provides both a beautiful natural resource and critical water supplies to millions of residents..
- Worked with other Senators from New York and Connecticut to secure more than $350 million to help New Jersey recover from the 9/11 attacks.
- Led efforts to protect New Jersey's seniors from changes in the prescription drug bill that could have undermined the PAAD and Senior Gold programs. Thanks to his efforts, many seniors in the state will face far less disruption in their access to needed prescription drugs. For example, Senator Corzine helped ensure that New Jersey seniors enrolled in PAAD will automatically be enrolled in the new prescription drug discount card program. This not only will help seniors, but will save New Jersey taxpayers almost $100 million.
- Successfully sponsored legislation to increase the FHA multi-family loan limit and to raise the loan guarantee limit for veterans housing. These measures will give thousands of middle class New Jerseyans the opportunity to afford a home of their own. In addition, Senator Corzine has led efforts to support the HOPE VI program, which promotes innovative housing solutions for those with more modest incomes.
- Fought to increase federal transportation assistance to New Jersey and has gained initial funding to study the construction of a second railroad tunnel underneath the Hudson River to expand New Jersey's commuter rail system.
- Drafted key provisions of a major corporate reform law, which was enacted in response to a wave of corporate scandals. The legislation tightened business accounting standards and boosted enforcement efforts at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
- Has been the leading Democratic Party spokesman on protecting Social Security as a universal system that can be counted on for guaranteed benefits.
- He successfully secured the enactment of legislation to provide federal assistance to promote financial literacy in schools and to require the development of related curricula for our schools. He also has introduced legislation to create community-based financial literacy programs for the elderly and low-income men and women moving from welfare to work. In addition, he has teamed with community groups in Newark and with the IRS to expand knowledge about the earned income tax credit.
- Fought to protect college students from damaging Bush cuts in student aid.
- The senator is a prime cosponsor of legislation known as the "Start Healthy, Stay Healthy Act,'' which would expand access to health care coverage for children and pregnant women, and introduced the USA Health Care Act of 2003 which would create a Medi-Kids program to provide universal health insurance for children up to age 23 and require large employers, with fifty or more employees, to provide health coverage for all their workers.
- He was the lead cosponsor of legislation to both extend and improve the ban on assault weapons, and has advocated closing loopholes in current law that allow criminals to obtain dangerous weapons at gun shows. He also has introduced his own legislation to subject firearms to consumer safety standards, and to prohibit convicted felons from regaining their ability to legally possess firearms, at taxpayer expense.
- Senator Corzine also has been at the forefront of efforts to promote effective enforcement of civil rights laws, and specifically to ban the practice of racial profiling, which subjects Americans to unfair discrimination based simply on the color of their skin. The senator helped draft the first comprehensive federal bill to ban racial profiling, which not only would address this type of injustice, but would improve the quality of policing in many areas.
- He introduced legislation to increase criminal penalties for employers who willfully violate workplace safety laws, declaring that willful violations of safety standards could no longer be treated as a "trivial federal offense.''
On the international scene, the Senator has also been leading efforts to address the tragedy in the Sudan. Senator Corzine secured approval of a resolution calling the situation "genocide." Senator Corzine wrote a diary on the Daily Kos about the very Darfur issue. Also, after traveling to Darfur himself, the senator led a successful bipartisan effort to secure $75 million to support African Union peacekeeping troops. While it is far too early to know what will happen, these efforts have the potential of saving hundreds of thousands of innocent lives.
Political circumstances have aligned in New Jersey to create an open seat for the Governor's race in 2005. Given the corruption of the McGreevey administration, if McGreevey or current Acting Governor Richard Codey had run, they would most likely have been defeated by either Bret Schundler or Doug Forrester, the two main Republican challengers for the job. But with Corzine clearing the Democratic field by announcing his intention to run, the Democrats will most likely retain the seat
The Issues
On the Issues
Project Vote Smart
Campaign Contributions
Voting Record
Recent Speeches
Bill Sponsorship
State Information:
[Image pulled by request of site hosting it.]
Census and Demographic Data on the State of New Jersey
Contact Information:
Website: http://corzine.senate.gov/
Email Senator Corzine
Gubernatorial Campaign website: http://www.corzineforgovernor.com/site/PageServer
Washington D.C. Office
U.S. Senator Jon S. Corzine
502 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-4744
FAX: (202) 228-2197
(TDD/TTY) (202) 2241984
New Jersey Offices
One Gateway Center, 11th Floor
Newark, New Jersey 07102
(973) 645-3030
FAX:(973) 645-0502
208 White Horse Pike, Suite 18
Barrington, New Jersey 08007
(856) 757-5353
FAX: (856) 546-1526
Previous Democrats of The Day:
4-25-05: Senator Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawaii
4-26-05: Representative Artur Davis, D-Alabama 7th
4-27-05: Governor Brad Henry, D-Oklahoma
4-28-05: Representative Jim McDermott, D-Washington State 7th
5-2-05: Representative Sander Levin, D-Michigan 12th
5-2-05: Governor Ted Kulongoski, D-Oregon