A bit of a surprise, but not a lot of newspaper commentary today on the election. There were a few, however, worth noting:
Tom Moran in The Star-Ledger outlines how the change in Republican Senate members might alter the party’s relationship to the majority, especially because folks like Bill Baroni and Kevin O’Toole have been pushing the ethics reform issue. The idea — and it makes some sense — is that the GOP might be willing to forgo partisanship and work with the governor on real reforms, with Democrats like John Adler and Barbara Buono then playing maverick to force change.
To see how this might play out, look at the prospects for ethics reform, the albatross around the Democratic Party’s neck.
Democrats tried to release some pressure by enacting weak reforms earlier this year on dual officeholding and campaign finance reform. Gov. Jon Corzine says he wants more, and will push hard for it this year.
As it happens, Republicans agree with him. It’s the Democratic leaders in the Legislature who are blocking the tougher reforms.So look for the new senators to pounce on this in a way the old guard did not. They will offer the governor support, and challenge him to get his own troops in line. They will seek Democratic defections so they can force a floor vote on the reforms, even if Senate President Richard Codey tries to block it. They will hold news conferences and town meetings to push the cause.
“We will use whatever tactics we need to use,” Baroni said. “In this campaign, they stood up and said they want reform. Well, now is the time.”
I hope he’s right. The reforms that were adopted were absurdly weak and there is a lot of difficult work to be done — and not just on ethics.
As Charles Stiles in The Record points out, the Democrats have some advantages that they should use to take some chances and make some real headway on the budget.
The new Democratic majority now has enormous advantages — strong majorities in both houses, which include a new generation of freshman lawmakers. The Democrats also have a governor with strong approval ratings, while New Jersey Republicans are bereft of cash and saddled with George Bush and an unpopular war in Iraq.
Instead of taking a risk-free path to the next election cycle, the Democrats should reconsider their priorities and put forward a progressive, family-oriented agenda — universal health care, a more equitable school funding formula, an energy policy that weighs consumer and environmental concerns with business needs — that could set the stage for Democratic Party control for the next decade. Stop worrying about campaign contributions. They will come.
“We know what the problems are. We know some of the baseline initiatives to be taken,” said former Democratic Gov. Jim Florio. He noted that Corzine has already laid out the foundation of change, with commissions evaluating health care, school funding and energy reform — even though they barely got a mention on the campaign trail.
“Now is the time to deal with them,” Florio said. “I think the Legislature is ready to do it. I think the Legislature will be prepared.”
I would hope so. It is interesting that Stiles quotes Florio — my sense is that the former governor has remained unpopular, but that his stock has grown significantly among people who understand the state’s problems. If the state had followed his plan at the time — not a perfect plan, admittedly — the school funding debate maybe taking a different form and perhaps we wouldn’t be faced with some of the structural problems created by his immediate successors.
The chances of anything real happening, though, depend primarily on Gov. Corzine. If he shows a willingness to go to the mat on ethics and fiscal reform — something he lacked the stomach for during his first two years in office — then we will see major reforms take place. If he continues to play footsie with the traditional Democratic powerbrokers, then all bets are off and he will find himself facing a far tougher re-election fight than he probably should face.
Which brings up another point — one that could also derail reform. Gov. Corzine is up for re-election in 2009 — as are all 80 members of the new Assembly. Election politics have the very real potential to color everything that is to come in the next two years. If it does, change will not occur.
(By the way, my analysis of why the anger and disaffection in the state did not translate to gains for the GOP will be in tomorrow’s South Brunswick Post and Friday’s Cranbury Press.)
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Hank Kalet 