SPEAKING OF CORRUPTION………….

While New Jersey competes with Illinois for the title of most corrupt state in the Union, Illinois' soon to be former Governor, Rod Blagojevich isn't the only state executive trying to keep secrets. New Jersey's own Governor, Jon Corzine, is in the courts as he tries to keep his negotiations with one of the state's most powerful unions a secret.

The negotiations in questions were conducted between the Communications Workers of America Local 1034 and the state.

At the time that these negotiations were conducted, Carla Katz was the president of the union and as such, she was the individual negotiating contracts with the state. Along with other representatives of the state, Governor Corzine was the individual with whom Katz negotiated with for the union.

Conveniently, Katz and Corzine were once intimately involved. That is a fact which makes the lucrative, state contract that the two negotiated for the CWA a bit questionable.

That is also why some would like to know what went on in those negotiations. How and why did the state accept the unions costly demands?

To help answer that question, back in May, Superior Court Judge Paul Innes ordered that the Governor release hundreds of pages of correspondence between him, his aides and Katz during the time frame of the negotiations.

Corzine refuses to do so and Carla Katz joins him in that position..

He claims "executive privilege", believing that certain arrangements must remain secret.

She claims that state arbitration laws demand that the talks remain secret.

Ain't that convenient? Laws that demand the people be kept in the dark about the reasons behind why the government does what it does. Sounds like Lenin's rules of order for the politiburo

Like more than half of the voters polled in New Jersey, I disagree with the Governor's position. I believe that state negotiations for state contracts that spend the tax dollars of state residents should be an open and honest process. We should know what was offered and why. We should know what the union demanded and why. We should not be kept in the dark when it comes to finding out how own money is spent.

Governor Corzine and Carla Katz may want to keep the details of their negotiated deal a secret but that is not how a democratic form of an open and honest government works.

The two of them were not arranging how they were going to finance their next personal vacation to Hawaii. They were negotiating how to spend our tax dollars. That gives us the right to know how that arrangement was meant.

With all the corruption in New Jersey government, you would think that the governor would want to stay above reproach. You would think that he would go out of his way to help regain voters faith in government. Especially since he succeeded a corrupt democrat governor who resigned under a patronage and financial scandal that he tried to overshadow by announcing he was a closeted "gay American" who was cheating on his wife.

As more and more political leaders and government employees are being arrested in New Jersey, we need to know that our incumbent governor can be trusted.

By appealing the courts decision and fighting to keep his "official" talks with Carla Katz a secret, Jon Corzine is only raising suspicion and increasing our already lost faith in government.

Corzine may not know how to be a good Governor but he is not stupid. He realizes all of this, yet he still defies the obvious and clings to the documentation of his secret arrangements with the CWA's former president and his own former girlfriend.

The people and the courts of New Jersey deserve to know what is in those emails between Corizne and Katz. None of us are asking for the disclosure of any pillow talk or personal realizations. We simply want to make sure that the CWA contract deal was made for all the right reason.

Corzine's refusal to clear his name by turning these emails over to the proper authorities simply makes one believe that, like many other indicted and arrested New Jersey politicians, Corzine made a corrupt deal. That is not exactly the best impression that one can bring to the table in their bid for reelection. But until Governor Corzine releases those emails, he will be running for reelection with a smoking gun in his hand. Then again if the appellate courts reject Corzine's appeal, he may not be running for reelection after all. Instead he just might join a long list of fellow former state legislators and a few other governors in federal prison.

UNDER THE "HE SAID IT, NOT ME" CATEGORY
"Give this motherf****r Obama his senator? F**k him. For nothing. 
 F**k him."  
                                                          ~Soon to be former Illinois Governor Rod Blagovejich