As the former chairman of Goldman (“Government”) Sachs and ex-governor of New Jersey, Jon Corzine is politically well-connected in the Garden State. But that may not be viewed as an unalloyed asset since filmmaker Peter LeDonne’s The Soprano State, based on the New York Times bestseller about corruption and political abuse in New Jersey, opened in late October.
Narrated in a gravelly Joisey accent by actor Tony Darrow, who played Lorenzo “Larry Boy” Barese on TV’s The Sopranos, the 80-minute documentary delves into a number of high-profile scandals involving such characters as “the king of double-dipping,” former state senator Wayne Bryant, and Newark’s notorious former mayor, Sharpe James, who was indicted on 25 corruption charges.
Corzine, 63, who vowed to clean up Camden, seems to have been caught up in New Jersey’s dubious political culture all the same. LeDonne’s film zeroes in on Corzine’s relationship with ex-girlfriend Carla Katz, who headed a New Jersey public employees union while Corzine was in office, posing a potential conflict of interest. In true Garden State style, Corzine made concessions to Katz’s union and penned letters to help her secure a full scholarship to go back to school.
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