Corzine – Ultimate Pay To Player

Senator Jon Corzine's personal wealth -- which has been estimated at between $260 million and $400 million -- became a key issue in his self-financed campaign for the Senate in 2000. But more than just running the most expensive state campaign in history, Corzine's wealth allowed him to start building his own Democratic power base in New Jersey by donating to state and county partisans.

During a 17-day stretch in mid-October, as he prepared to declare himself a candidate for governor, Sen. Jon Corzine gave $342,000 of his own money to 16 Democratic county organizations across New Jersey. All told, Corzine and his family have given $9 million to Democratic causes and candidates -- $8 million of it since he left investment banking in 1999 for politics -- according to a Star-Ledger analysis of state and federal campaign finance reports, the most comprehensive examination of his political donations to date.

"It's kind of the ultimate 'pay-to-play.' It's actually to gain office rather than government contracts," said Joseph Marbach, the chairman of the political science department at Seton Hall University.