Carla Katz

Carla Katz makes her radio debut tonight at 6PM on NJ 101.5's The Jersey Guys.  The state's most politically influential radio station announced last week that Katz, a former labor leader and Gov. Jon Corzine's onetime girlfriend, will join their station. 

New Jersey 101.5 announced today that Carla Katz, a labor leader and political activist, will be on the station starting on Monday, May 4th at six o’clock with The Jersey Guys.

“We’re very excited that Carla is joining the New Jersey 101.5 team,” said Eric Johnson, Program Director for New Jersey 101.5 Radio. “She’s smart, she’s candid, has strong opinions, she’s funny and there is no doubt she’ll stir up some controversy on our station.”

Former labor leader Carla Katz will announce today that she is joining NJ 101.5, the state's most politically influential radio station, as the host of an afternoon drive-time talk show.  Katz served as President of CWA Local 1034, the largest public employee union in the state, and has become prominent in state politics as the former girlfriend of Gov. Jon Corzine.  E-mail communicatons between the two were the subject of a lawsuit as Republicans sought to have Corzine make his personal correspondence with Katz public.

Carla Katz has called a press conference for tomorrow afternoon at the statehouse and she won't say why.  Could the former labor leader be revealing her e-mails with her ex-boyfriend, Gov. Jon Corzine?  Probably not, but count on the state political landscape changing dramatically tomorrow if she did. 

Former CWA Local 1034 President Carla Katz, who was once Gov. Jon Corzine's girlfriend, has called a statehouse news conference for Thursday afternoon.  Katz has declined to disclose the topic of her presser.

The New Jersey Republican State Committee is facing severe financial difficulties and has not paid several staffers in recent weeks, according to several sources familiar with the state party organization.  GOP State Chairman Thomas Wilson, who is expected to be replaced when his term expires in June, is among those who have not received a paycheck.  There are unconfirmed reports that at least two Republican staffers are preparing to leave because they have not been paid.

There have been numerous press stories covering the "F" word in the past month-furloughs, not the other New Jersey favorite.  The fight over furloughs has been characterized by the press in a variety of ways. The Governor's "tough times budget" spin-the state is in an economic meltdown, everyone must share the pain, and 14 unpaid days and a wage freeze is better than layoffs. The unions' collective message-a contract is a contract and furloughs (AKA pay cuts) and demands for givebacks of negotiated wages undermine the collective bargaining process and unfairly penalize middle class working families who have already made massive concessions and cannot afford to give more in this troubled economy any more than their neighbors can.

Some of this battle is playing out on the streets, some in the press, and now also in the courts as the state appellate court  has recently agreed to hear argument on the issue of public worker furloughs and whether an emergency rule of the Civil Service Commission was an illegal end around the contract as the unions say or a proper exercise of government in "imminent peril" as Governor Corzine says.  Similar high profile furlough battles are taking place across the country, including in California and Washington State, and in cities like Newark where the Mayor just proposed city employees take 18 furlough days over the next year.

Governor Corzine today expressed relief that the question of whether he will be forced to reveal his email correspondence with ex-girlfriend/former union leader Carla Katz has been resolved by the State Supreme Court’s refusal to hear Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson’s case.

“I am glad this is all over. I think we had a political fishing trip by folks that has gone on far too long.  I think that the things that we are working on here today, things of real substance, are what public life is supposed to be all about,” said Corzine in a statement.

Wilson argued that the emails should be aired so the public can judge whether Corzine and Katz engaged in back-channel negotiations during contract talks with Katz’s former union, CWA Local 1034.  

With no legal options remaining to force Governor Corzine to turn over emails between himself and ex-girlfriend Carla Katz, a former public employee union leader, Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson said today Corzine should release the emails on his own volition.  

“With the legal question now answered, all that is left is for Jon Corzine to answer the real question. Did his backchannel communications with Carla Katz, away from the bargaining table, influence his actions on the state worker contract?  The only way for people to know the answer is for Corzine to now release the e-mails,” wrote Wilson in his formal response to the State Supreme Court’s decision not to hear his legal challenge to Corzine today.

Corzine claimed executive privilege in keeping the emails out of view and said last year that the public would find most of the content “extraordinarily boring.”