WWS class plays host to New Jersey Sen. Torricelli

Democrat Robert Torricelli, in his second official day as New Jersey's senior Senator following Tuesday's election of Jon Corzine, visited campus yesterday hoping to learn as well as to teach.

Small in stature and eager to vocalize his views on gun control and universal health care, Torricelli said that, as a graduate of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, he enjoyed exchanging ideas with Princeton's Wilson School students.

Torricelli — speaking to students in economics professor Elizabeth Bogan's WWS 307: Economics and Public Policy — said he visited the University to get feedback on pertinent political issues. "Princeton is an important part of politics because it's a community of discussion of ideas," he said. "Princeton is a place where I learn."

Torricelli said he has spoken at the University four or five times since winning the 1996 N.J. Senatorial election.

With controversy about the presidential election raging, Torricelli discussed his views on the unusually close race. A staunch Democrat, he candidly said he hoped Vice President Al Gore would win the election.

At the same time, Torricelli said he strongly believes the election should be determined by counting ballots and not by taking the issue to court.

"If this goes to the courts, it will become a dangerous downward spiral and will continue in other counties and states," he said in an interview after the lecture. "The presidency shouldn't be decided by a federal judge."

Torricelli said the election should be decided by the Electoral College, even if the electors' choice is not the candidate who wins the popular vote.

He said he remains confident the American people will accept and stand behind whichever candidate receives the most Electoral College votes.

The presidency must be decided as soon as possible, Torricelli said. "For domestic and international reasons, control of the government cannot remain in doubt," he explained. "This is urgent."

During his lecture to Bogan's class, Torricelli attributed the almost equal distribution of votes between the Republican and Democratic candidates to many Americans' uncertainty about the federal government's role.

"We are working with the most divided government in 120 years," Torricelli said. "Americans are still debating the meaning of federalism and the scale and scope of the U.S. government, and the Gore-Bush election is central to that debate."

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

With the possibility of a 50-50 party split in the Senate and a nearly equal balance of power in the House, Torricelli said he foresees more cooperation between Democrats and Republicans.

"This will force us to find common solutions," he said. "There's no reason that this cohabitation in the House and Senate shouldn't be successful."

Torricelli said the Constitution is designed for each generation of Americans to determine the role of federal government.

"Previous generations have adjusted the scale of government for their own economic needs," he said. "We're not doing that, and that's the reason for stalemate in the federal government today."

Torricelli also said uncertainty about government's role sometimes creates the appearance of governmental ineffectiveness.

"Without a governing national philosophy, it's hard to debate programs, so voters think that nothing is getting done," he said.

Torricelli also said America's lack of a national philosophy is not new, but not necessarily an entirely bad thing.

"I'm not saying we're disunified," he said, "but we're struggling with the same governmental philosophical issues that they struggled with in Philadelphia at the Constitutional Convention."