Corzine, Carla Katz And An Odd House Transaction Near D.C.

The New York Times is reporting Senator Jon Corzine late in 2002 provided a $470,000 mortgage to Carla Katz through JSC Investments, a company owned solely by Corzine. The Senator then forgave the loan in December, 2004; one week after Corzine formally began his candidacy for Governor of New Jersey.

Katz is the President of the Communications Workers of America Local 1034, a union that represents nearly half of all New Jersey state employees. Corzine said the timing of the mortgage cancellation was coincidental.

Representing the largest state employee's union, Katz will “seek billions of dollars from the state for wage increases and a bailout of the state's troubled health care and pension funds.”

Ms. Katz, who has worked for the union since 1982, has been a familiar presence in the State House for years, and a key figure in lobbying for an assortment of benefits packages for public employees, including a 9 percent increase in pension benefits that was approved in 2001. In recent months, as state officials have warned that the spiraling cost of public employee pensions and health care poses a threat to New Jersey's fiscal future, Ms. Katz has also helped lead union protests warning legislators not to cut benefits for workers or retirees.

Katz and Corzine were adamant in stating their personal and financial relationship will not prevent either one from aggressively representing their constituents.

Some labor experts said Wednesday that the financial relationship between Mr. Corzine and Ms. Katz had the potential to raise doubts among both union members and taxpayers.

On June 27 Katz’s union endorsed Corzine for Governor. Kicking off the ceremony in Atlantic City. Katz introduced Corzine by giving him a peck on the cheek and telling an anecdote about the first time they met.

No doubt the union will be well represented; it’s the taxpayers that should be worried in the event Corzine is elected Governor. For a summary of why Jon Corzine is unfit to be Governor of New Jersey see our posts of July 12 and April 19.

While the press is investigating Corzine’s finances, maybe someone ought to look into a transaction we wrote about in our post – Corzine's House: Where There's Smoke, There's Fire.

According to an article on Forbes, in May 2001 Jon Corzine paid $4.7 million for a house in a neighborhood near Washington, D.C. The house had sold for only $775,000 two years before he bought it, a difference of nearly $4 million. According to local records, the house's ownership was in the name of Nancy Dunlap, trustee of Laybourne, Lawrence E&D, in Newark, N.J., but local real estate sources said it was Corzine's D.C. residence.

Interestingly Dunlap, a New Jersey native served as a Director of Participation 2000 (aka Emily's List, Campaign Corps), an organization that provided students and activists to work in Democratic political campaigns across the country. The group had been chaired by Corzine, one of the organization's biggest financial backers.

One thing is clear, Jon Corzine’s romantic affairs had a noxious effect on his relationship with his wife of 33 years, Joanne. The couple was divorced in November 2003. At the time, Mrs. Corzine released a statement emphasizing Senator Corzine’s conduct led to the divorce.

"I still believe in family values, loyalty and fair play." "I had no desire to seek a separation from my husband or jeopardize the vows of my marriage, either before he was elected to the Senate or afterward," her statement said. "We had grown up together and, I felt, shared the same value system."

Apparently Joanne Corzine was wrong.

Update:

Some in the blogosphere seem to view the $470,000 loan forgiveness by Corzine to the president of the largest state employee's union as just a gift to a girlfriend. Perhaps in isolation it might appear that way, but let’s go back and remember what was happening in December of 2004. Acting Governor Codey hadn’t decided whether or not he would challenge Corzine for his party’s nomination for Governor at that point.

Corzine did not want another bloody, costly fight in a primary and a Codey run was gaining some traction:

The best news for Codey may be that head-to-head general election match-ups showed him faring slightly better against the two most likely Republican nominees than Corzine. The finding may simply have been a result of the more well-known Corzine’s higher disapproval rating -- 26 percent to Codey’s nine percent.

Corzine’s general mode of operation was to buy everyone off to gain their support. As has been widely reported, Corzine gave nearly $1 million to a campaign committee run by George Norcross, the Democratic uber-boss in South Jersey. Norcross was the guy that backed Florio in the Senate primary that probably set Corzine back $35 million. If someone caused you that much aggravation and money would you turn around and give him a $1 million if you didn’t think you had to buy his support?

The Philadelphia Inquirer has reported Corzine has given approximately $10 million more to other party organizations around the state since 2000. During a 17-day stretch in mid-October of 2004, as Corzine prepared to declare himself a candidate for governor, he gave $342,000 to 16 Democratic county organizations across New Jersey. Is that how you would spend your money, unless you thought you had to in order to get what you wanted?

And as many will remember, Corzine’s mother Nancy Corzine, a retired schoolteacher in Oak Park, Ill, gave $37,000 to the Bergen County Democratic Organization in October. 2004. Now, who believes his mother’s generosity makes any sense outside of the context of Corzine trying to nail down the gubernatorial nomination without a primary?

This brings us to Corzine forgiving the $470,000 loan to Carla Katz in December of 2004. So, we are to believe that when Ms. Katz was his girlfriend, Corzine was all business like and gave her a loan, one she was obligated to pay back. However, once she reverted back to being just a president of the largest state employee’s union, a $470,000 gift was in order. Seems backwards to us – normally the girlfriend receives the gift, an acquaintance gets the loan. Unless of course Corzine felt he had better not take any chances and tried to nail down support from a powerful union boss in December of 2004. Isn’t that a more logical reason for Corzine to forgive the loan?

More on the Corzine-Katz Financial Deals:
Carla Katz Has Big Plans
The Corzine - Katz Deal: The Best Of Both Worlds
Why Did Corzine Forgive The Loan To Carla Katz?
Corzine, Carla Katz And An Odd House Transaction Near D.C.


More on the Corzine – Katz story:
Corzine gave boss of union $470,000 – Star-Ledger
Sen. turned gal pal loan into a gift - The Jersey Journal
Corzine forgave $470G loan to head of union – Trenton Times