Senator John Edwards as a running mate for Senator John Kerry. In 2002, Corzine called for the resignation of United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt. Committee assignments In the Senate, Corzine was a member of the Committees on Banking, Intelligence, the Budget, Foreign Relations, Environment, and Energy and Natural Resources. Campaigns for New Jersey Governor 2005 Corzine and his opponent, Republican Doug Forrester, spent $73 million on their gubernatorial campaigns by the week before election day. This included $38 million by Corzine and $19 million by Forrester for the general election. The primaries accounted for the difference. Since Corzine had spent over $62 million on his 2000 United States Senate elections, the combined expenditures for Corzine's run for the Senate and governorship exceeded $100 million. The main campaign issues were property taxes and the Bush administration. New Jersey had averaged $5,500 in 2004 property taxes, and Corzine tried to link his opponent to Bush. The campaign for the post of Governor of New Jersey was successful with 54% of the vote. Forrester, a businessman and a former Mayor of West Windsor Township, in Mercer County, won 43%. Corzine received 1,224,493 votes to Forrester's 985,235. A total of 80,277 votes, or 3%, were scattered among other candidates. Corzine won 13 of New Jersey's 21 counties: Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Mercer, Middlesex, Passaic, Salem, and Union. Corzine won the three most populous counties (Bergen, Essex, and Middlesex), five of the top six, and seven of the top nine. 2009 Corzine ran for re-election in the 2009 New Jersey gubernatorial election. In January 2009, Rasmussen Reports indicated that recently announced Republican challenger Chris Christie led Corzine 42% to 40%. Other polls that month showed Corzine with approvals of 46% to 40%, but these were trailing his "favorables", which were just 42–44%. By June and July, a number of polls showed Corzine trailing the Republican nominee, Christie, by double digits, though the tide changed again and by October polls showed Corzine was close, and in some cases, ahead. In the end, Corzine lost the race to Christie by a margin of 48.5% to 44.9%, with 5.8% of the vote going to independent candidate Chris Daggett. Governor of New Jersey Corzine officially declined his $175,000 salary in 2006. After taking office in January 2006, Corzine's approval numbers were very low. Many polls seemed to indicate that much of