New Jersey doesn't necessarily hold Governors accountable: Brendan Byrne won re-election to a second term in 1977 despite his support for a controversial state income tax, and Jim Florio nearly won re-election in 1993 -- two years after he was arguably the most unpopular Governor in state history.

New Jersey voters don't hold Jon Corzine accountable the same way Tom Wilson and Tom Moran do: a Quinnipiac University poll released today has the Governor at a 49%-40% approval rating.  That's not a great number, but it's not terrible either.

Gov. Jon Corzine has a 49%-40% approval rating, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released this morning. He was at 48%-39% in July. U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg has a 46%-36% approval rating, but 54% of voters say he is too old to serve for six more years. Against an unnamed Republican challenger, Lautenberg leads 39%-36% -- a statistical dead-heat.

Republican U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie has a 40%-14% approval rating, but voters say they don't won't him to run against Lautenberg or Corzine.

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It’s another day in Trenton, that substitute city for Sodom and Gomorrah in the storybooks Republicans read to their children.

There’s a kindly-looking, self-deprecating man presiding in the upper house. Senate President Richard Codey tells a boy entrusted as the day’s gavel pounder that they’ll get out of the Senate chamber earlier than the boy’s schoolmates, who are still stranded in a classroom somewhere. Later, he’s posing for pictures with what look to be the female, senior citizen contents of a bus that was bound for Atlantic City, since detoured to Trenton to see the former governor.

Back in 2003, New Jersey Republicans made the legislative race about holding Jim McGreevey accountable. At the time, McGreevey was suffering from low approval ratings.

But it didn’t work -- the GOP wound up losing control of the Senate and losing more seats in the Assembly.

“I think in 2003 the message was a little too simple: ‘send a message to Jim McGreevey,’” said state GOP Chairman Tom Wilson. “I think that was less of a winner than talking about specific issues.”

A guest column from Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, a Morris County Republican:

During his inaugural address, Governor Corzine repeatedly emphasized one theme: “hold me accountable.”

So, as the midterm elections approach, and his Party defends its record – his record – the question presents itself: has Corzine fulfilled the promises made during his campaign, or in his inaugural?

Corzine enjoys a huge advantage: following Jim McGreevey, virtually anyone looks good by comparison. The Democrats under McGreevey compiled one of the most shameful records of political and fiscal irresponsibility ever witnessed. The Democrats turned New Jersey into a national laughing stock, an economic basket case. If Corzine inherited a mess, his Democratic legislative counterparts created it.

Corzine promised change: an end to fiscal gimmicks, REAL property tax relief and reform (without new taxes), and a rebirth of ethical standards. He assured us that his private life would not impinge upon his public duties. He pledged to drive a hard bargain with state employee unions and to end the power of political bosses.

After Jon Stevens Corzine took the oath of office as the Governor of New Jersey on January 17, 2006, he told the people of New Jersey: "Hold me accountable."

He's not the first Governor to make such a bold claim in an Inaugural Address. Four years earlier, James E. McGreevey promised to "change the way we do business in Trenton."

In a way, McGreevey did, indeed, change the way Trenton did business.

But what about Corzine, as he heads into the mid-term legislative elections -- and stands two years away from his own re-election campaign?  Is he being held accountable?