Jon Corzine
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Jon Stevens Corzine (born January 1, 1947) is an American politician and businessman. He is a member of the Democratic Party and is currently a United States Senator from New Jersey serving from 2001 to 2007. He was the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee during the 2004 election cycle. On December 2, 2004, he announced his candidacy for Governor of New Jersey in the 2005 gubernatorial election.
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Early Years and Education
Born in central Illinois, Corzine grew up on a small family farm near Taylorville, Illinois. After completing high school, he applied to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for his undergraduate degree and graduated in 1969. While in college, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves and served until 1975, rising to the rank of sergeant. After his active duty in 1970, he enrolled in the University of Chicago graduate business school. By 1973, he received his MBA, which launched him into his business career.
Business Career
His first experience in business was a job at Bank Ohio, a regional bank in Columbus, Ohio. He worked there until 1975 when he moved his family to New Jersey. There he was hired as a bond trader for Goldman Sachs. Over the years, he worked his way up to Chairman and CEO of the company in 1994 and successfully converted the investment firm from a private partnership to a worldwide publicly traded corporation. He received numerous awards and recognition for his job including being in the TIME magazine Top 50 Technology Executives in 1997.
Entry into Politics
Leaving Goldman Sachs in January 1999, Corzine campaigned for one of New Jersey's Senate seats after Frank Lautenberg announced his retirement. Corzine was elected to the Senate by a narrow margin over his Republican opponent Bob Franks in November 2000 and was sworn into the Senate in January 2001. He spent $62,802,999 on his campaign, the most expensive Senate campaign in US history, even though New Jersey is a predominantly Democratic state. Over $35 million of this was on the primary alone; New Jersey is one of the most expensive states to campaign in, because it is dominated by the two high-cost television markets of New York City and Philadelphia.
Senate Career
In the Senate, Corzine is a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, the U.S. Senate Committee on Intelligence, the U.S. Senate Committee on Budget, and the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. He co-authored the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a piece of legislation designed to crack down on corporate malfeasance. He is a supporter of introducing legislation that reforms the 401 (k) plan to minimize the risk of investment portfolios. He is a sponsor of the Start Healthy, Stay Healthy Act which expands health care coverage for children and pregnant women. Corzine supported providing a two-year tax break to September 11, 2001 attacks victims to help them recover financially and help grant citizenship to victims that were legal resident aliens. He supports tighter gun control laws, outlawing racial profiling, and subsidies for Amtrak. He is also the chief sponsor, along with U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, of the Darfur Accountability Act, which would apply sanctions on the Sudanese and create a framework for addressing the genocide occurring in the Darfur region.
Since May 2005 he has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.
Related topics
External links
- Official Corzine Senate Site (http://corzine.senate.gov/)
- Official 2005 Gubernatorial Campaign Site (http://www.corzineforgovernor.com)
| Preceded by: Frank Lautenberg | U.S. Senator (Class 1) from New Jersey 2001– | Succeeded by: Incumbent Template:End box Template:NJ-FedRep Template:Current U.S Senatorsfr:Jon Corzine |