From Wall Street to Washington
Jon S. Corzine, '73

Globalization and technology may have worked to the firm's advantage, but Corzine is credited with engineering a financial turnaround at Goldman in the mid-'90s. After a string of losses, the firm experienced record profits under Corzine. And Wall Street rewarded Corzine for his success: He amassed $400 million while guiding Goldman to its controversial IPO in 1999. But ultimately, the contentious public offering - and the debate and wrangling that surrounded it - cost Corzine his position at the firm's helm.

"I thought what I did was the right thing, and I would do it again knowing the circumstances would work out the same way," Corzine said. I had a difference of view about the public offering and how you went about developing a consensus to make sure that happened.

"I did get a vote 75-25 in favor by the partners; that's not the way it worked in the management committee. I'm sure I made mistakes in how I carried out some of the expression of thatŠbut I don't have any regrets about policies. [The firm] is a lot more secure, a lot more productive, and will be‹not for a couple of years, but for as far as the eye can see into the future."

A New Challenge
After he was ousted from Goldman, Corzine began considering his next endeavor. As Corzine entertained philanthropy, writing, and consulting, New Jersey senator Frank Lautenberg - himself a millionaire who used personal funds to finance his campaign - retired unexpectedly.

"I always intended to do something either in philanthropy or public service, and [the Senate race] was a great opportunity at a time when I had choices," Corzine said. He admitted, however, that he never seriously considered running for office before 1999. "Once life had become as intriguing as it was at Goldman Sachs and it looked like I had a serious career in front of me...I focused very intensely on my professional career," he said.

Despite that, deciding to run "was not as precipitous a decision as it might have looked from the outside." A longtime donor to the Democratic party, Corzine had no shortage of opinions - and a rather weighty sense of noblesse oblige. Add to that Lautenberg's retirement, "the convulsions that surrounded going public, the bailing out of Long-Term Capital, my participation in leadership of those issues that put me in some conflict with my colleagues at Goldman Sachs," and the time was right for the challenge of the Senate race.

Though he had no political experience outside the student senate at the University of Illinois, Corzine was not without government experience. He worked for ten years on the government securities borrowing committee, advised the U.S. Treasury, and served as the committee's chairman for two years.

"This was a meaningful and interesting sidebar to my business career," Corzine said. In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed Corzine to the Commission on Capital Budgeting, which he chaired along with Katherine Brown. Corzine said the two-year assignment gave him "a taste of how government might operate."

A Costly Controversy
In September 1999, Corzine declared himself a candidate for the Senate. His campaign was fraught with financial controversy early on. Ultimately, Corzine would spend more than $60 million on his campaign, more than any other politician in American history. Divide that figure by the number of New Jersey voters who punched the ballot for Corzine, and you have an expenditure of roughly $39 per vote.

On his campaign spending: "It's a coin toss whether the money was an advantage or a disadvantage."

While this was record breaking, the use of personal fortune to finance a campaign is not unprecedented in New Jersey. One major expense for candidates is advertising, because New Jersey has no state broadcast news organization of its own. Candidates must advertise in New York and Philadelphia, the nation's first and third largest markets, respectively. Air time is expensive and was a major campaign expense.

Since Corzine was a relative unknown, gaining recognition was important. In the end, Corzine was known mostly for his spending, rather than his take on the issues. "It's a coin toss whether the money was an advantage or disadvantage," Corzine said. "The media took a pretty negative view of it and repeated an argument which my political opponents tried to use as the basis for why you shouldn't want Jon Corzine for the United States Senate. Sometimes I don't think they ever wanted even to debate the issues, or get focused on the issues."

Corzine said his slim 3 percent margin of victory would have been larger if not for the negative publicity. But not all voters were turned off by his spending. "As badly as I think I was sometimes burned by the money I spent, I think there also was a sense of independence that people [thought] they might get from me that would be different from a traditional politician."

Ultimately, he attributed his victory to the fact that voters found him believable and consistent - in addition to independent.

Progressive Politics
Corzine's "progressive" - don't call it liberal - platform is somewhat unexpected for a middle-aged multi- millionaire. He supports universal health care, abortion rights, and affirmative action. He wants strong funding for public schools and an increase in the minimum wage. He thinks all guns should be registered and all gun owners licensed. He is against the death penalty. He is not in favor of eliminating the inheritance tax. And he opposes tax cuts that might benefit him.

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