 |
|
|
October
11, 2002, 9:20 a.m.
Corruptions
On
New Jersey politics.
By NR
Editors, from the October 28, 2002, issue of National Review
|
|
here will be no Soprano jokes in this editorial. The reality of
New Jersey politics outruns the whimsy of HBO.
Sen. Robert Torricelli's campaign for reelection began failing after
it became evident that he had shaken down a New Jersey businessman, David
Chang, for illegal campaign contributions and little goodies, such as
a Rolex watch. The FBI investigated him, the Senate Ethics Committee "severely
admonished" him, and the release of a memo by federal prosecutors
summarizing the evidence sent Torricelli into a death spiral. Republican
rival Doug Forrester catapulted from sacrificial lamb to runaway leader.
|
|
So Torricelli pulled out of the race 36 days before Election Day. His
farewell address was a classic of modern bathos, weepy, self-pitying,
and accusatory: "When," he asked, "did we become such an
unforgiving people?" Two days after this performance, the New Jersey
Democratic party plugged former senator Frank Lautenberg into his slot
on the ballot. Forrester and the GOP challenged the substitution, but
the supreme court of New Jersey ruled, 7-0, that it was permissible. The
Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear an appeal.
The New Jersey maneuver stinks like a toxic waste dump. New Jersey law
says that substitutions must be made at least 51 days before the vote.
Sen. Torricelli was not dead, or in jail, or otherwise incapacitated.
He had simply been revealed as a sleazebag, and was becoming a deeply
unpopular one. Yanking him off the ballot canceled the will of New Jersey's
Democratic-primary voters; popping in Lautenberg at the last minute deprives
all New Jersey voters of the back-and-forth of a normal campaign. In some
cases, it will deprive New Jerseyans voting by absentee ballot of a vote.
The example for other states is remarkable. New York Democrats could replace
the faltering gubernatorial candidate Carl McCall with somebody popular,
if they could find anyone. California Republicans unhappy with Bill Simon
might tap Arnold Schwarzenegger to terminate Gov. Gray Davis.
Still, the United States Supreme Court was wise to stay out of this one.
Corruption at the state level has a long history in American life; one
of the first victims to suffer from it was John Jay, author, with Hamilton
and Madison, of the Federalist Papers, who was cheated out of a
New York governorship by slippery vote-counting in 1792. Rogue politicians
(these days, usually judges) must be checked by responsible ones. Bush
v. Gore, the Supreme Court decision that stopped a Democratic attempt
to steal the electoral votes of Florida in 2000, was an unsatisfactory
compromise forced on the justices by the gravity of an unresolved election
for president, the most important office on earth (how that cliché
came to life the following September). NR argued at the time that,
in an ideal world, elected officials — county canvassers, the governor
and legislature of Florida, and, finally, the House of Representatives
— ought to deal with the problem. If they overstepped, they could
be punished at the next election.
This is the ground Forrester and the New Jersey GOP must now fight on.
Lautenberg and Torricelli are two peas in a rotten pod, part of a Garden
State culture of corner-cutting and corruption. Citizens must be called
to defend themselves at the ballot box, not wait to be saved by a rival
squad of judges.
|
|
|
|
<% dim printurl
printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%>
