PSE&G gives $100k to Corzine toll hike group; does that create a DeMicco/Fox conflict?

Among the donors to Save Our State NJ, the issue-advocacy group essentially formed by Governor Jon Corzine to advocate his plan to raise tolls, is Public Service Electric & Gas. PSE&G has contributed $100,000 to the effort, according to sources familiar with the SOS group. That might explain Corzine’s reluctance to quickly release the list of SOS donors.

Editor's Note: The Inside Edge strongly stands behind our original report that PSE&G pledged $100,000 to Gov. Corzine's Save Our State NJ toll hike advocacy group, despite communications that seek to demonstrate otherwise and a release of their donors at the end of the day.

PSE&G is the state’s largest energy company, and as a regulated industry, state law prohibits them from making campaign contributions. But a hundred grand is a good way of moving some dollars in through the back door. And PSE&G has a strong understanding of how New Jersey politics works: they just hired Star-Ledger political columnist Tom Moran as their policy director.

There is another potential conflict here: PSE&G got a rate hike from the state Board of Public Utilities -- which could raise electric bills for 2.1 million New Jerseyans, and gas bills for 1.7 million. Corzine has just reappointed the embattled BPU President, Jeanne Fox, to another term. While it is unknown if Fox’s husband, Democratic political consultant Steve DeMicco, is working for SOS – nobody knows, they haven’t disclosed their contributors or expenditures – it is certain that DeMicco has a personal stake in the success of Corzine’s political career.