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The New York Times
U.S. / Region
Accident Changed
Corzine,
Not His Political
Agenda
By DAVID W. COHEN,
nytimes.com on the Web, April 8, 2008
PRINCETON, N.J. — Gov. Jon S.
Corzine swears that he wears his seat belt now, and reminds others to do the
same. He says he feels so blessed to be alive that he takes far better
care of himself now. And he says he is touched when people wish him well,
even if they do not care for his policies.
But when it comes to day-to-day governing, ask almost anybody who works for,
with or against Mr. Corzine to explain the difference between the governor
before the accident and the governor after the crash, and the answer is
remarkably consistent.
What difference?
“He’s the same,” the state treasurer, David Rousseau, said on Monday. “If
I took out the period of April 12 to Labor Day, you wouldn’t know that the
accident happened, at least from the work side. I think he’s totally
engaged, wanting to know everything about everything, wanting to get into the
weeds.”
It was on April 12 that Mr. Corzine was seriously injured when the state vehicle
in which he was traveling at 91 miles per hour crashed into a guardrail on the
Garden State Parkway. He was not wearing a seat belt. With the first
anniversary approaching, Mr. Corzine decided to accommodate a crush of media
requests by holding a news conference on Monday at Drumthwacket, the governor’s
mansion.
It had all the trappings of a made-for-television retrospective as Mr. Corzine
was peppered with questions about what he remembered and whether he had an
epiphany afterward. Mr. Corzine obliged, to a degree, saying that while
his entire convalescence remained a blur, he had a deeper appreciation for his
family and friends, and for the fragility of life.
But after sustaining 18 fractures and losing half of his blood, “he’s had a
complete recovery,” said Dr. Robert F. Ostrum, the chief trauma orthopedist at
Cooper University Hospital in Camden.
Indeed, Mr. Corzine said that he was probably in better shape now than before
the accident because he carved out more than an hour each day to exercise.
More telling was Mr. Corzine’s statement that he did not feel the need to
approach issues or policies or his agenda any differently.
Perhaps he had lost some time because of the accident and his rehabilitation, he
conceded, but he would still have pursued his controversial plan to reduce the
state’s debt and finance transportation projects by significantly raising
highway tolls. He said he would still have proposed an austere budget that
reduces overall spending by $500 million, one that has enraged farmers,
environmentalists, educators and just about every interest group in Trenton.
“I don’t think it’s changed my understanding of what the needs of fixing the
finances are,” Mr. Corzine said.
This is not to say that Mr. Corzine did not apply some personal lessons to the
public-policy realm. He became a forceful advocate for driver safety,
participating in a public-service announcement on television that began with him
stating bluntly: “I’m New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, and I should be dead.”
And last month, Mr. Corzine embraced the findings of a commission on teenage
drivers that he had appointed. It recommended that all passengers in the
back seat, regardless of age, be required to buckle up.
For several months after the accident, Mr. Corzine would joke that it was good
to be here — “it’s good to be anywhere” — but these days, the quips are gone and
it is right down to business.
Sometimes, Mr. Corzine has acted as if he wants to make up for lost time.
His public schedule has been crammed of late; he spoke to six groups on Friday
through Sunday, crisscrossing the state.
Bradley I. Abelow, his chief of staff, says that while Mr. Corzine has always
displayed an incredible intensity in tackling problems, his intensity was by
necessity “episodic” for a few months after the accident, as the governor
focused primarily on rehabilitation. But now, Mr. Abelow said, Mr. Corzine
has returned to his former self as a thorough and exacting boss.
William G. Dressel Jr., executive director of the New Jersey State League of
Municipalities, has been among Mr. Corzine’s fiercest critics because of
proposed cuts to towns in the budget. But he marveled at Mr. Corzine’s
energy.
“Here was a man who was literally on his deathbed, and he probably has one of
the most overtly ambitious agendas of any governor that I can recall in my 34
years; he makes the Energizer Bunny pale in comparison,” Mr. Dressel said.
“But as far as his day-to-day operations and his philosophy of how he wants to
move the state, I don’t think he has changed one iota.”
Still, some administration officials and others say that Mr. Corzine’s political
skills — hardly the best to begin with — have not exactly improved in the
aftermath of the accident.
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