Would you forgive a half-million dollar personal loan to your ex-girlfriend? How about if she were in a position to help you get an important job -- a job in which you would make decisins to benefit her business?

Would reasonable people with a modicum of ethics find this situation problematic? I think so.

Which is why the Democrat candidate for governor of New Jersey thinks such a conflict of interest is just fine.

Senator and gubernatorial candidate Jon S. Corzine lent the president of New Jersey's largest state workers union $470,000 when the two were romantically involved three years ago, then forgave the debt last year.

Corzine defended the transaction, first described in reports Thursday in the Newark Star-Ledger and the New York Times.

Corzine turned the 10-year mortgage into a gift to Carla Katz last December, according to court documents. The move came a week after he kicked off his campaign for governor and several months after the two stopped dating.

Katz, 46, is president of Local 1034 of the Communications Workers of America. The union local represents 9,000 state workers.

Corzine's involvement with Katz is significant because the two could find themselves on opposite sides of the bargaining table if he wins the November election. Corzine is a Democrat who was elected to the Senate in 2000, and he announced in December that he would run for governor.

The Republican candidate for governor, businessman Doug Forrester, said Corzine's gift to Katz "suggests an all-too-familiar pattern in New Jersey of public officials entangling themselves in relationships that are not private matters but in direct conflict with the public interest."

Speaking after a news conference Thursday on an unrelated matter, Corzine said the loan would not hamper his administration's ability to negotiate with the union.

"I don't think there's a conflict," said Corzine, 58. "The relationship has ended."

I wonder at what point the romance will be rekindled after the election? In the mean time, she will be in charge of dispensing campaign funds in his race -- and he will be offering more "sweetheart deals" to the union.

Posted by: Greg at 05:35 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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