What's Next for Jon Corzine?

Dear Governor Corzine,

As you prepare to leave office, I would like to thank you for your service to New Jersey and the nation, both as a United States Senator and as Governor.

You entered the political arena as a wealthy man and decided on a second career in public service. You had a tough job to do. Being the governor of any state, let alone a state as diverse and complex as New Jersey, is an impossible job, especially during the economic travails of the Bush era financial collapse. It was difficult for you to provide essential services to state residents while simultaneously trying to hold taxation at a reasonable level.

While we still have serious financial issues in New Jersey and across the nation, I believe history will be kinder to you than the contemporary pundits have been. You accomplished a lot during your tenure as our governor – including providing funding for college education, implementing more effective gun control, stopping sale of New Jersey ports to the United Arab Emirates, championing stem cell research, medicinal marijuana and marriage equality, and abolishing the death penalty to name a few. Your unpopular move to raise the state sales tax was a difficult choice, but the right thing to do in order to maintain essential services.

So what’s next? One of the most important issues facing our nation is our dysfunctional and harmful financial system, brought to us by your former colleagues on Wall Street. Your experience in this arena, along with your working knowledge of federal and state government, provides you with the knowledge and ability to spearhead reform. You have always been a champion of the middle class, and the current Wall Street crowd is doing everything it can to destroy the middle class. I call on you to join forces with your former colleague, Governor Spitzer, to work to re-regulate our financial system to make it work for all Americans, not just the privileged few on Wall Street who are grabbing obscene remuneration on the backs of American workers. You can continue to provide the people of New Jersey and America with a wonderful public service by proactively working to improve our financial system.

Finally, for the sake of your children and grandchildren, please remember to always buckle up.

Sincerely,

Deciminyan