what was the reason for the defeat of jon corzine?”
Did Voters Punish Bloomberg, Corzine Because They Are Rich? Standing on line at my polling place in Manhattan yesterday, I overheard a woman tell another “It’s the money that really gets me. He’s buying the election. Everyone is hurting and he’s spending $100 million on junk mail.” She was referring, of course, to Michael Bloomberg and the estimated $100 million he spent for a third term as New York City mayor. Mr. Bloomberg won of course. But his narrower-than-expected victory, coupled with the defeat of Jon Corzine across the Hudson River, raises a question in the new era of populist politics. Did the they lose votes because of their personal wealth? Conventional wisdom was that the personal fortunes spent by Messrs. Bloomberg and Corzine–outspending their opponents by huge ratios–would help them overcome any obstacles and criticism. Instead, their fortunes and personal spending may have hurt them both. It didn’t help that both reaped their fortunes from financial markets. In exit po
