Says financial contributions did not influence decision
By: Jennifer Potash
Rep. Rush Holt (D-12) says he isn’t worried that his endorsement last week of Jon Corzine in his bid for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate will hurt him with moderate supporters.
And he is rankled by questions about contributions to his campaign from Mr. Corzine.
Rep. Holt insisted Monday that the financial support from Mr. Corzine and his family did not influence his endorsement.
“I reject and even resent any such implication,” he said.
While Mr. Corzine has contributed to his campaign, Rep. Holt said, so have 5,000 other individuals “whose contributions are a bigger sacrifice than those by Jon or his wife.
“It stands out in no way from other individual contributions,” Rep. Holt said.
Rep. Holt, of Hopewell Township, who is running for re-election in the 12th Congressional District, received $11,000 from Mr. Corzine and members of his family, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Employees of Goldman, Sachs & Co. and their spouses also contributed $26,000 to Rep. Holt’s re-election campaign, according to FEC reports.
Mr. Corzine, who is in a hotly contested primary battle with former Gov. Jim Florio, is the former chairman of Goldman Sachs, where he amassed a personal fortune estimated at more than $300 million.
Rep. Holt added that he has received campaign contributions from supporters of Mr. Florio.
Mr. Florio and his wife, Lucinda, attended a 1999 fund-raiser for Rep. Holt, which featured First Lady Hillary Clinton.
Rep. Holt said while he did choose between Mr. Corzine and Mr. Florio, his endorsement was “not meant to be a harsh criticism of the other.”
After winning the 1998 primary race against former Princeton Township Committee member Carl Mayer, who spent nearly $500,000 in the campaign, Rep. Holt commented that the race was not about the money but about the issues.
Rep. Holt, who is running unopposed in the Democratic primary, is expected to face a tough re-election fight in November in a district that had been Republican-held for most of the 1990s.
Mr. Corzine — who has campaigned for universal health care, universal public education and stronger gun control — has been called liberal by pundits and politicians alike.
But Mr. Holt, who has positioned himself as a moderate Democrat — touting his bipartisan support of the Shays-Meehan campaign finance bill and voting for a Republican education bill — does not believe that supporting Mr. Corzine will be a liability to him with the voters.
“I don’t have to agree with all the positions of every person I happen to share the ballot with,” Rep. Holt said. “But I think there is some good overlap between the positions I’m advocating and those Jon Corzine believes in.
“Jon Corzine is a good antidote to the creeping cynicism in the political process right now,” Rep. Holt said. “I think that in a election year where the word ‘compassionate’ has been misused in some circles, I think Jon is a successful business person in a hard-headed corporate world, yet he does have compassion for the people he would represent.”
The Republican primary pits two former 12th District representatives against each other.
Dick Zimmer, of Delaware Township, represented the district for six years before giving up the seat in 1996 after an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate.
His successor, Michael Pappas of Branchburg, held the seat for one term before losing it to Rep. Holt in 1998.