United States Senate election in New Jersey, 2000

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Senator Frank R. Lautenberg first elected to the Senate in 1982 in an upset victory over Rep. Millicent Fenwick (R-Bergen), had always been an underdog in all three bids for Senate, He beat Pete Dawkins in 1988 by a 54%-46% margin and held back a challenge from Chuck Haytaian by a smaller margin of 50%-47% However, Popular Governor Christine Todd Whitman was expected to challenge Lautenberg and opinion polls showed Lautenberg losing by a large margin, He retired but later regretted his decision because Gov. Whitman and Former Governor Tom Kean both declined to run for the Senate. Lautenberg would be elected to the state's other Senate Seat in 2002. Corzine spent $35 million of his fortunes into this primary election alone. when running against Jim Florio, who served as the 49th Governor of New Jersey from 1990 to 1994. Governor Florio was unpopular during his tenure in office, most notably he signed a $2.8 Billion tax increase in 1990, It costed his party control of state government for a decade and cost the Governor his re-election bid in 1993, Corzine running as an outsider, Mr. Corzine was endorsed by State Senator Raymond Zane (D-Gloucester), State Senator Wayne Bryant (D-Camden), State Senator John Adler (D-Camden), U.S Representative Bob Menendez (D-Hudson) and U.S Senator Bob Torricelli (D-NJ) Florio was endorsed by the State Party, Assemblyman Joe Doria (D-Hudson) and Senator John Lynch (D-Middlesex) Corzine defeated Florio in the primary and then defeated Bob Franks in the general election.

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Campaign

Franks, a moderate Republican, attacked Corzine for "trying to buy the election and of advocating big-government spending programs that the nation can ill afford." Corzine accused Franks of wanting to dismantle the Social Security system because he supported Governor George W. Bush's partial privatization plan.

During the campaign, Corzine refused to release his income tax return records. He claimed an interest in doing so, but he cited a confidentiality agreement with Goldman Sachs. Skeptics argued that he should have followed the example of his predecessor Robert Rubin, who converted his equity stake into debt upon leaving Goldman.

Corzine campaigned for state government programs including universal health care, universal gun registration, mandatory public preschool, and more taxpayer funding for college education. He pushed affirmative action and same-sex marriage. David Brooks considered Corzine so liberal that although his predecessor was also a Democrat, his election helped shift the Senate to the left.

During Corzine's campaign for the United States Senate, he made some controversial off-color statements. When introduced to a man with an Italian name who said he was in the construction business, Corzine quipped: “Oh, you make cement shoes!" according to Emanuel Alfano, chairman of the Italian-American One Voice Committee. Alfano also reported that when introduced to a lawyer named David Stein, Corzine said: "He's not Italian, is he? Oh, I guess he's your Jewish lawyer who is here to get the rest of you out of jail." Corzine denied mentioning religion, but did not deny the quip about Italians, claiming that some of his own ancestors were probably Italian, or maybe French.

Also in 2000, Corzine denied having paid off African-American ministers, when in fact the foundation controlled by him and his wife had paid one influential black church $25,000. Rev. Reginald T. Jackson, director of the Black Ministers Council, had campaigned against a form of racial profiling whereby police officers stop minority drivers and had gotten New Jersey state police superintendent, Carl A. Williams, fired. Corzine had donated to Jackson prior to getting what appears to be a reciprocal endorsement.

Franks generally trailed Corzine in the polls until the very last week, when he pulled even in a few polls. Corzine spent $63 million, while Franks spent only $6 million. Despite being heavily outspent, Franks lost by only three percentage points, doing better that year than Republican Governor George W. Bush in the presidential election, who obtained just 40% of the vote in the state.