By JEANE MacINTOSH
May 31, 2008
Gov. Jon Corzine must release hundreds of e-mails he exchanged with union boss and former girlfriend Carla Katz - who acted as an informal "adviser" to the pol during his first 18 months in office, a New Jersey judge ruled yesterday.
The 21-page ruling by Superior Court Judge Paul Innes is a blow to Corzine, who wanted the e-mails with Katz - head of the state's most powerful labor union - kept private, claiming they were personal and protected by executive privilege.
Corzine and Katz - who got a reported $6 million cash goodbye-gift from the pol when their two-year romance ended in 2004 - exchanged the e-mails during state-worker contract talks in late 2006 and early 2007.
"The relationship created a clear potential for conflict," wrote Innes.
"The public," he ruled, "has a right to know whether the relationship between the governor and Ms. Katz had any improper influence."
And, while Katz may have been "an adviser to the governor," Innes noted, that role "would not serve to protect all her communications with the governor under the doctrine of executive privilege."
The nearly 800 e-mails are slated to be released in two weeks.
The judge said the correspondence slated for release pertains strictly to state business, and "any purely personal communications" between the pair are excluded.
The governor's ethics advisory panel had previously reviewed some of the e-mails and said that while they contained "inadvisable personal conversations," there was "no actual conflict of interest."
