The Governor may be out to make political hay, or perhaps he is merely trying to cancel the worst of the criticism he earned. It’s still a message that ought to be delivered, and I’m glad he is doing it.
From the Star-Ledger of Jersey City, New Jersey:
Contrite Corzine takes his seat belt message national
Ad gets good reviews as governor admits, ‘I should be dead’
Friday, May 25, 2007
BY DEBORAH HOWLETT
Star-Ledger Staff
Gov. Jon Corzine’s new television ad was widely praised yesterday as a powerful, personal appeal to motorists to buckle up.
But beyond its value as a public service, the thirty-second TV spot posed real political challenges — as well as opportunities — for Corzine, who made a deliberate decision to go national with his safety pitch.
Corzine chose the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration to produce and distribute the message at no cost to the state. Aides said Corzine didn’t want to saddle the state Department of Transportation with the cost, including paying for TV air time, and he wanted to prevent any notion he was using scarce tax dollars for personal or political gain.
The decision also let Corzine deliver a mea culpa to a national audience already tuned in to the circumstances of his accident.
Corzine has made national headlines in the six weeks since he was gravely injured in a car crash on the Garden State Parkway. He was not wearing a seat belt. He publicly apologized for his bad judgment and voluntarily paid a $46 fine. He also pledged to speak out on the issue.
The release of the TV and radio spots at 4 a.m. yesterday was carefully timed to hit the beginning of the 24-hour news cycle and find the widest audience on the network TV morning shows. The public service announcement — “PSA” in media-speak — also aired throughout the day on major cable outlets, such as CNN and Fox.
This morning, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters will join Corzine at Drumthwacket, the governor’s official residence, for a news conference promoting seat belt use timed to the Memorial Day start of the summer travel season.
“This was an opportunity to get an important message out to a wide audience,” Corzine spokesman Anthony Coley said of the effort. “We wanted to take full advantage.”
For a politician who might aspire to higher office, or a cabinet position in a Democratic administration, the flip-side of that opportunity is the risk of looking like a dope who forgot to buckle up, said David Rebovich of the Rider University Institute for New Jersey Politics.
He said the shock of the opening line — “I’m New Jersey governor Jon Corzine and I should be dead” — might even prove to be too much.
“It would be disastrous if it became his signature line, like Tom Kean saying ‘New Jersey and you, perfect together,’” Rebovich said. Even worse, he said, the governor could come across as insincere in delivering the message.
“This is him taking lemons and making lemonade,” said state Republican chairman Tom Wilson. “We’ll find out shortly if people view this as using tragedy to further his career.”
Acutely aware of the consequences of making such a mistake on the national stage, Corzine ran a final cut of the PSA past his longtime friend and campaign media adviser, Bob Shrum, before releasing the spot publicly.
Shrum said he was in Europe on business the past two weeks and didn’t speak directly with Corzine, but called the spot a “terrific, very powerful message” delivered from the heart.
“All you have to do is watch and listen,” Shrum said. “There is no doubt this is someone who went through a terrible experience and was changed by it.”
In 85 words, written by one of his communication aides, Andrew Poag, Corzine gives a straightforward synopsis of his ordeal: 15 broken bones and 18 days in the hospital. “I have to live with my mistake,” Corzine says at the end. “You don’t. Buckle up.”
Pam Fischer, director of the state’s Division of Highway Traffic Safety, was at the 45-minute taping of the PSA at Drumthwacket on May 15 and said the aim was to be blunt and bold.
“It’s supposed to be very in-your-face,” Fischer said. “Our focus was to hit people between the eyes with this very important message.”
Corzine makes no apology for not buckling up and does not mention that the State Police SUV in which he was riding was speeding along the parkway at 91 mph with its emergency flashers on just before the crash.
Raising the issue of speed would have diluted the message, said David Weinstein of the New Jersey AAA chapter.
“I don’t want to sound like the governor’s flack,’ he said, “but it was a very well done ad and it was about seat belts.”
He also praised the governor’s choice of NHTSA to distribute the ad because the state lack the funds to adequately air the spots.
“The thing about a PSA is that you can have the most powerful advocacy message in the world, but what good is it if nobody sees it,” Weinstein said.
Corzine’s spot has been widely publicized in the free news media and will likely air as a PSA on network news during the holiday weekend, filling the gaps in “bonus” air time that results from previous buys the U.S. Department of Transportation made for its national “Click it or Ticket” campaign.
There is no plan to buy air time specifically for the Philadelphia and New York markets that cover New Jersey, although TV stations may air the ad for free as a public service.
Deborah Howlett may be reached at dhowlett@starledger.com or (609) 989-0273.