Newark

Corzine Sincerity Check
In Case You Missed It

The Auditor reports that Jon Corzine's last-minute cancellation of a long-scheduled meeting with twenty black ministers at the Renaissance Church of Newark was not well-received:

Corzine Won't Stand Up to James on Newark Arena
Party Boss's pet project is moving forward

From the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University: "In the spring of 1910, Col. George Harvey, editor of Harper's Weekly, persuaded [former U.S. Senator] James Smith of Newark, "boss" of the New Jersey Democratic Party, to support [Woodrow] Wilson for the gubernatorial nomination. Wilson, who had recently lost an internal struggle at Princeton with one of his deans, agreed to accept the nomination if it were offered without conditions. Smith's well-oiled machine worked perfectly, but his plan to elect a dignified puppet soon went awry. Wilson accepted the Democratic state convention's nomination, aligned himself with the progressive forces that had been fighting Smith, and won in a landslide on Nov. 8, 1910. It was only the beginning of the revolution. Before his inauguration Wilson prevented Smith's election to the United States Senate by the state legislature. Inaugurated on Jan. 17, 1911, the new governor maintained such heavy pressure on the legislature at Trenton that he won enactment of most of his program in one session: direct primaries; effective state regulations of public utilities; workmen's compensation; municipal reform; and reorganization of the school system. In early 1913 he won the last of his important demands--antitrust legislation to drive industrial monopolies from New Jersey."