Controversial N.J. Figure Attacks 'Star-Ledger' Reporter -- On Her 'Star-Ledger' Blog

By: Joe Strupp Outside of New Jersey, the name Carla Katz does not draw much interest. But within the Garden State, Katz, president of the union that represents state and local government employees -- and the ex-girlfriend of Gov. Jon Corzine -- has raised plenty of interest in recent years.

From questions about how her relationship with the governor might affect contract negotiations to revelations that he had given her $470,000 for a new mortgage, Katz has made lots of news statewide.

So it seemed at least a bit odd when The Star-Ledger of Newark, the state's largest newspaper, gave Katz a blog this past summer as part of its new NJ Voices program, which offers blog space to non-newspaper people. Katz's postings since then have focused mostly on expected issues, from state worker rights to politics.

But last Friday, the blog burst forth with controversy when Katz took on Star-Ledger reporter Josh Margolin, one of the paper's top statehouse scribes. She wrote that he was "downright obsessed" with covering her and attacked him for stories such as his recent article about dissident union leaders filing charge to have Katz ousted for allegedly misappropriating funds.

"?no other union leader's or union's internal local drama (and trust me, we all have internal drama) gets consistently and continuously plastered across the pages of the Ledger, almost all with Josh's byline," Katz wrote. "It is more than slightly disconcerting to see the comparatively normal internal drama of our local covered in the paper with the same intensity of the Yankees recent quest for a new manager."

Katz eventually asked readers to send her stories about Margolin, who was among the reporters honored in 2005 when the paper received a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of former governor James McGreevey's resignation.

"So, I was thinking that if the Ledger is going to write soooooo much about me and the Local that I should even the playing field and, well, write about Josh. The Josh chronicles," she stated. "So folks, send me your best Josh Margolin stories. I'll keep them anonymous unless they are Pulitzer material. And I promise, I won't hold a grudge."

Margolin told E&P he has no problem with Katz having a blog or criticizing him: "Once anyone is given the space to blog, the call is clear, they have the right to say what they want to say."

Star-Ledger Editor Jim Willse said he had invited Katz to blog on the site because "she has opinions about a range of matters just as her fellow bloggers do that are of interest." He said the Margolin posting was not edited, although he expressed it made him "a little uncomfortable."

"It is a bit of uncharted territory," he admitted. "But if you are going to invite someone to write commentary on a blog, you have to let nature take its course."

In the hardball world of New Jersey politics, the Katz blog posting has drawn interest in recent days, even as the state is preparing for today's intense statewide elections.

At one Trenton-based online report, www.inthelobby.net, the situation sparked a lengthy opinion.

"Wow. We raised our eyebrows a bit when the Star Ledger gave Carla Katz, the governor's ex-girlfriend and head of CWA Local 1034, her own blog space under their New Jersey Voices section. She had used it mostly to discuss policy issues," the blog stated. "Until Friday night. That's when Katz unleashed a verbal assault upon Josh Margolin, the Star Ledger reporter who's been writing about her union troubles, not to mention issues involving her finances, and her family's finances, and how they intertwine with Gov. Corzine."

The posting later adds: "Now, our guess is that neither Margolin, or anybody else (including us) would be writing much about Katz and the 'normal internal drama of (her) local' if it wasn't for: Her relationship with Corzine, the potential conflict of interest, and the potential it has to affect public policy; His (and her) continuing secrecy over the $6 million negotiated settlement; The e-mails they exchanged during contract negotiations where Katz apparently was attempting to influence the course of the negotiations to reflect her point of view; The fact that the national union has interceded and said she had no business e-mailing the governor in the first place; and/or that Corzine, after the fact, gave back one of the union concessions that Katz had fought so vigorously against, and whether any of her e-mails or communications may have influenced him to do it."

Another such site, www.Politicsnj.com, declared, "?the big story on the weekend before the 2007 election ? at least among political insiders ? is the fight between CWA President Carla Katz and Star-Ledger reporter Josh Margolin."

As of Tuesday morning, the Katz item had drawn some 60 comments to the blog page, far more than anything else she has written. The reactions range from a Star-Ledger critic who claims Margolin "loves trashing people and hitting below the belt" to supporters who write "Katz just doesn't get it."