It began with billionaire Ross Perot spending some $80 million to snatch the Presidency from President George H. Bush in 1992.

Instead, Perot’s interference handed the election to then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, and his co-president, Hillary Clinton.

For eight years, it was all downhill for the United States of America, except for President Ronald Reagan’s Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who kept the economy humming, despite the Clintons’ socialist policies and the President’s immoral and unethical behavior.

We’re paying the price today.

Billionaire Mike Bloomberg, a liberal Democrat, became an instant Republican, spending $80 million to buy the Mayor’s Office in America’s No. 1 City – New York.

Along comes Jon Corzine, a Wall Street tycoon who amassed more than $300 million and spent some $63 million of it to buy New Jersey’s U.S. Senate seat.

This is the Age of the SuperRich Politician. The Ugly American!

I find Perot, Bloomberg and Corzine destructive forces in America’s political system.

Money alone – big money! – can rob voters by handing an election to the guy spending multi-millions in mass media coverage, destroying the competition.

That’s an "undemocratic" thing to do. But this is what American politics is all about today. That’s why John Kerry ran for President. His billionaire wife, Teresa Heinz (of the Heinz food fortune) provided all the money he needed to roll over the opposition candidate.

In this case, big money lost. Bush beat Kerry by more than three-and-a-half million popular votes.

Yes, Bush and his presidential father are rich – but they are not super-millionaires, or billionaires.

New Jersey, a predominately Democrat (Blue) State, will have an opportunity to vote for U.S. Senator Jon Corzine this fall – or for a Republican (hopefully conservative).

Recent New Jersey Republican governors, such as Christie Whitman and Tom Kean, are what the GOP calls "Rockefeller Republicans (like in "liberal"). Only a "liberal" Republican (which is an oxymoron) can get elected in the tax-burdened Garden State.

So there it is: Big-time millionaire Jon Corzine versus a real Republican who can keep New Jersey from crashing into bankruptcy.

The Democrats big losers have been Governors Jim Florio, Jim McGreevey, Acting Governor and State Senate President Richard Codey – and, perhaps Jon Corzine.

So what does it look like? A poll in March found the political environment is beginning to once again favor Republicans. Voters are dissatisfied with the direction the state is heading. They are angry about rising property taxes (the highest in the nation), corruption and debt (over $4 billion).

Finally, the folks are fully aware that the Democrats control state government in Trenton, the crossroads of the American Revolution.

The folks agree that over the past three years the quality of life in New Jersey has gotten worse, not better.

Republicans are perceived as the party that is better able to handle the issues of taxes, debt and corruption.

Voters are more willing to embrace the Republican plan for a budget that relies on responsible, fair spending, rather than the Democrat budget that contains wasteful, unfair spending and soaring taxes.

A hefty 62 percent think New Jersey is on the wrong track. Coincidentally, that’s the same percentage of registered Democrats in the state.

The top three issues: property taxes (42 percent), corruption (24 percent) and debt (23 percent).

Are you better off today than you were three years ago? A 53 percent "No" on that one.

On the question of whether Corzine is trying to buy the Governorship, 67 percent of the folks say "yes."

Watch out, Corzine! The folks are already on to your mega-millions to buy the Governorship, which has been scandalized by Jim "I’m a Gay American" McGreevey over the last three years.

My only question is, ‘Who will be the Republican candidate to take on Senator Corzine?"

How about someone who is not wealthy and has a clean track record as an elected public official.

Someone who will represent the working taxpayers/voters – not the rich special interests who can buy elections at the local, county, state and federal levels.

What I’m looking for is another Abe Lincoln, the father of the Republican Party and the one person who kept America whole after winning the Civil War in the 1860s.

Okay, Republicans. Now go find an Abe Lincoln among the five million adults in New Jersey (the state’s population is 8.5 million).

"Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact."

Gordon Bishop is a national award winning author, historian and syndicated columnist, and New Jersey’s first "Journalist-of-the-Year" - New Jersey Press Association/1986. He is a regular columnist for Ether Zone.

Gordon Bishop can be reached at: [email protected]

Published in the March 22, 2005 issue of  Ether Zone.
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