Corzine road plan draws his allies' fire

You may have already seen the picture in your mailbox.

Assemblyman Jim Whelan, a Democrat from Atlantic County, stands with his arms folded, a tough-guy look on his face. “Our roadways are NOT for sale!” the mailer shouts. “Stand with me in protecting them.”

The other side of the mail piece asks voters to clip a form and return it to Whelan’s campaign. It’s a pledge to join the assemblyman in protecting state roadways from being sold to private companies or foreign governments.

Left unmentioned is that the plan Whelan asks for help in fighting is a plan put forth — sort of — by Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a member of the same party.

Although Corzine has not released any details on his plan, he has ruled out an outright sale or any involvement from foreign or private companies. The plan instead would lease state toll roads to a nonprofit company in order to sell bonds that would be paid off by future toll revenues, freeing immediate revenue to pay down debt and invest in capital projects.

In another year, the plan might be seen as Corzine’s Wall Street-style solution to New Jersey’s perennial fiscal crisis. In the shorthand of campaign season, the plan means this: toll hikes.

“It isn’t that people are so in love with their toll roads, but people just look at this and say tolls are going to go up and potholes aren’t going to get fixed,” Republican analyst Carl Golden said. “I think Corzine is finding out what drives decisions on Wall Street drives people nuts on State Street. ... It’s not the time to discuss this in a rational, reasonable way. Political campaigns are not known for their subtlety or nuance. That’s why Democrats are setting speed records running away from this thing.”

Whelan’s mailer, sent out this week, takes the “our roadways are not for sale” line from an earlier mail piece sent by Assemblymen Jeff Van Drew and Nelson Albano, Democrats representing Cape May and parts of Cumberland and Atlantic counties. In it, the two announce their own petition drive. They also plan a rally for August to voice opposition to the sale or lease of state toll roads.

Republicans are left to argue that their opponents’ mailers are not worth the paper they are printed on.

The campaign of State Sen. James “Sonny” McCullough, R-Atlantic, has launched its own petition drive opposing the toll-road plan.

State Sen. Nicholas Asselta contends that Van Drew and Albano already broke their promise not to support the leasing of toll roads when they voted for a state budget that includes language to cover the cost for Corzine to prepare for the leasing of state assets.

“If you believed this was a priority, as I believe, than you would have either tried to get the language taken out of the budget or you would have voted no on the budget,” said Asselta, R-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic, whose seat is being challenged by Van Drew.

Van Drew called Asselta’s argument “bull.”

“If he’s accurate in saying that, then I’m saying he voted to close our casinos and he voted against property-tax relief and funding for tourism,” Van Drew said, a reference to last year, when the Legislature’s failure to pass a budget before deadline resulted in the temporary shutdown of state government and the casino industry.

While the candidates duke it out, Corzine and his administration appear intent on continuing to make their case. State Treasurer Bradley Abelow sent a letter to every mayor in the state July 18, explaining the eight principles behind Corzine’s asset monetization proposal and urging the local leaders to keep an open mind.

“We urge you to carefully consider how far you want to go in putting yourself and your community on record on this critical issue before we have a concrete proposal from the governor to debate,” Abelow writes.

The letter was a response to one sent to mayors 12 days earlier by Assembly Republican Minority Leader Alex DeCroce that asked each town to adopt a resolution opposing Corzine’s plan.

It appears Corzine has two choices for the months ahead. He can put his sales pitch on hold until after the election, or he can turn things up a notch, perhaps with a television ad campaign that explains and defends his plan to a public that threatens to grow more skeptical with each trip to the mailbox. Candidates on both sides of the aisle will be watching.

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