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Franks for U.S. Senate

This hard-working and moderate lawmaker has earned voters' support - not bought it.

On the surface, U.S. Senate candidate and former Wall Street mogul Jon Corzine would seem to be the dream advocate for every unmet social need.

The Democrat vows to push for "universal" everything: health care, preschool, gun registration, higher education for B students and above.

What's not to like, if you're a person who thinks those are worthy goals for a nation reveling in the longest economic boom in its history?

Well, there are a couple of points voters should think about before pulling the lever for this once-unknown, never-elected candidate, who has exploited nearly $60 million of his own money to race from zero to 70 on the political speedometer.

Quicker than you can say "Robert D. Franks," the name of his grotesquely outspent Republican opponent, Mr. Corzine could be sitting in the U.S. Senate. He would have set a new price for buying a seat in the most prestigious democratic club in the world. And he'd have created a new paradigm for the purchase.

Though you can hardly watch TV these days without seeing his bearded, smiling face, he's spent money on more than the usual blizzard of ads. He poured funds into hard-pressed party organizations, hired key political players to work on his campaign and used a family foundation to send charitable gifts to groups that wound up supporting him.

Will liberals who wink at this sale of a Senate seat because they like Mr. Corzine's politics feel so comfortable when a conservative tycoon adopts his playbook the next time around?

If he wins, Mr. Corzine would enter the Senate without ever having run for a seat on a planning board, school board, county office or legislative seat. Often, he hasn't bothered to vote in such elections.

No voter can know whether he will have the savvy or tenaciousness to get any of his programs through the laborious Senate process. You just have to trust that millionaires can do anything.

A pertinent campaign question posed by Mr. Franks, a four-term congressman from Union County, is this: "If he has such little regard for his own money, what regard will he have for yours, your children's and your parents'?"

Mr. Corzine now does a better job than he once did of accounting for how he'd pay for all his promised programs. But his fumbling in debate exchanges with Mr. Franks shows what a difference hands-on experience can make.

New Jersey voters, who get to decide one of the most watched Senate races in recent history, should go with experience. They should elect Bob Franks.

He is a smart, articulate, moderate lawmaker who would chart a sane path for using any surpluses: Don't risk huge tax cuts, pay down the federal debt, invest in children and entitlements, do some targeted tax relief.

Mr. Franks has shown the guts to resist errors and excesses of his party's congressional leadership. Importantly, given the spotlight this campaign has shone on the issue of money and politics, he has supported the Shays-Meehan campaign-finance reform bill that GOP leaders opposed.

He decries pork-barrel defense spending, and uses projects in Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's home state of Mississippi as examples.

On safety net issues, Mr. Franks wisely favors extending the federal Children's Health Insurance Program to include the parents of poor children. He'd expand federal special education funding, Head Start and the Hope Scholarships. He'd eliminate ill-advised limits on access to food stamps.

Though he cast a bad vote to dilute the Clean Water Act in 1995, which cost him support from some environmental groups, Mr. Franks has largely been a friend of the environment on key issues. His deep experience in New Jersey issues includes seven terms in the state Assembly as well as his eight years in Congress.

Mr. Franks has earned a seat in the U.S. Senate, though he may not be able to afford to win it.

The Inquirer endorses ROBERT D. FRANKS as U.S. senator from New Jersey.