Jon Corzine's Illinois roots may not be the only reason he is rooting for the Chicago White Sox: the only time the team played in the World Series in a New Jersey gubernatorial year, 1919, Democrats captured the governorship. Edward Edwards, a State Senator from Hudson County, won a narrow 14,510 vote victory over Republican Newton Bugbee, a millionaire businessman from Mercer County.

In three out of four World Series when the White Sox were playing, New Jersey Republicans picked up seats in the State Assembly: eight seats in 1959 and three in 1917 (the Sox lost both those contests), and two in 1917 (the Sox won that World Series). The exception was in 1906, the year of the White Sox's first World Championship: Democrats picked up 28 Assembly seats.

At least one Democratic legislator is showing some political independence from Corzine, backing a different team in the World Series: Joseph Egan, the Chairman of the Assembly Labor Committee, is the father-in-law of Houston Astros Second Baseman Craig Biggio.