New Jersey

As if Democrats need another reason to push universal health insurance, enterprising New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine found one: Tax the sick. Not as a novel incentive to stay healthy, but to help close a state budget gap.

His $47 per day hospital bed fee is only one of a bunch of new taxes he proposed to fill a $4.5 billion budget hole. He also wants to boost the sales, booze, and cigarette taxes and tax utility water. You flush, you pay.

Apparently brotherly love doesn't extend across the Delaware River to New Jersey. Pennsylvania's Governor Ed Rendell and U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, normally political opponents, have formed an alliance to threaten New Jersey with retaliation for reneging on a gentleman's agreement about dredging the waterway that separates the two states. Both pols are up for re-election this year.

U.S. Senator Jon Corzine handily beat Doug Forrester in New Jersey's race for governor. The Democrat won 53% to 44% thanks to strong turnout from his base in key North Jersey urban counties and adjacent suburban districts. The strong showing by union voters gave Mr. Corzine a somewhat bigger win than last-week's tightening polls suggested.

Who was the winner in this weekend's debate between Doug Forrester and Jon Corzine? It was the moderator, WNBC's Gabe Pressman. Mr. Pressman was visibly pleased by the candidates' near constant sparring: Accusations and denials punctuated answers to almost every question. Mr. Pressman, a local legend, has been on the air in the New York City area for 60 years and is credited with coining the term "hippie" among other broadcast coups.

Quick, take this test: A candidate who opposes renewing a nuclear power plant's license, opposes development on prime riverfront land, balks at lowering income taxes and is pro-choice is from which party?

In New Jersey's governor's race, Republican candidate Doug Forrester has significantly chipped away at Democrat Jon Corzine's lead, from 18 points this summer to seven points last week, according to a Quinnipiac poll. If Mr. Forrester doesn't catch up and loses, it may be his best campaign proposal that does him in.

The air war between New Jersey's gubernatorial candidates is white hot, but it hasn't yet reached its crescendo. In the latest commercial, Republican Doug Forrester has a narrator speak about Democrat Jon Corzine's relationships with scandal-tainted Democrats and a $470,000 loan he forgave for a former girlfriend, Carla Katz, who heads the state-employee labor union that endorsed him soon after.

Where else but in New Jersey can an announcement that almost 5,000 dead people voted in last November's election be seen as a failure by both parties to turn out the vote? (After all, an even larger number of dead people were found to be registered.) Yet despite a reputation for smelly politics and smelly highway exits, New Jersey is a state to watch this year. Its gubernatorial election has the potential to trigger an important shift on the way to the 2008 presidential race.

States looking to close pesky budget gaps are finding an untapped mother lode beneath their feet -- er, wheels. Last year Chicago leased its eight-mile Skyway for $1.8 billion to a private consortium for 99 years. Now, governors on both coasts are salivating at the prospect of turning their asphalt and rest stops into cash.

Sex, money and power make for the best political stories, and U.S. Senator Jon Corzine's admission that he forgave a sizable loan to former girlfriend and powerful state union boss Carla Katz meets those criteria. Now we're learning that the two live in the same tony Hoboken high-rise; the house that Ms. Katz bought with Mr. Corzine's money is empty. Ms. Katz's union has endorsed Mr. Corzine's candidacy for New Jersey governor.