The Votes are in. The people have spoken. Jon Corzine doesn’t care.

Jon Corzine has a history of overriding the will of the majority because he knows better.

Before he went into politics, Corzine was the Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs, one of the world’s premier investment banks. Corzine thought it was a good idea to sell Goldman Sachs. It would give the company a great deal of money and make him and his partners fabulously wealthy. There was only one problem with Corzine’s scheme. His partners did not want to sell the company. Undeterred by lesser minds, Corzine sold the company anyway. All the partners got fabulously wealthy, the company got a huge influx of capital, and Corzine got fired.

It would seem that Corzine still has not learned to play well with others. Last week New Jersey voters defeated the ballot question that, if approved, would have authorized the State to borrow $450 million dollars to fund stem cell research. Corzine spent $200,000 of his own money to promote the measure. The voters said no. It was the first time in 17 years that the voters defeated any ballot measure.

Undeterred by lesser minds, Corzine is going forward anyway. It seems that he found a way to borrow $270 million without the voter’s approval to built five stem cell research facilities across the state. He actually had a ceremonial ground breaking for one of these facilities the week prior to Election Day, so sure was he that his cause would prevail at the ballot. It didn’t.

Corzine says the election doesn’t matter, because of low voter turnout. He’ll just spend $270 million dollars of our money and submit the $450 million to the voters again. If he builds it, we will come. I’m sure President Al Gore would agree with him.

There must be something in the water in Trenton, or maybe the Democrats have put stupid juice in the New Jersey water supply and they are waiting for it to kick in. Corzine’s hubris over stem cells is not the only measure the Trenton Democrats are forcing on the people without consent.

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts and Speaker Pro-Tempore Wilfredo Caraballo have announced that they are going to repeal the death penalty during the legislature’s lame duck session in December. Merry Christmas to the 8 murders on death row. I wonder what kind of holiday their victim’s families will be having.

The problem with the Trenton Democrats plan is that the death penalty is part of the New Jersey Constitution. An amendment to the New Jersey Constitution requires a 3/5 majority of both houses of the legislature and a majority vote of the people at the ballot box. Roberts and Caraballo seem to have overlooked that. Or maybe, like Corzine, they simply don’t care.

You can tell Corzine what you think by calling him at 609-292-6000. Or, you can bang your head against a wall.

Originally published in The Courier, November 15, 2007