Senator Defends Loan to Union Official

the news would be the conversion to a gift, not the loan; and the romantic angle is a little more significant as a cause, indicating a split with good will, but that's against the ``corrupt male'' template.

typically a loan is used to avoid paying a gift tax; and it's converted to a gift on splitting up as the best way of unentangling things when the woman has no way to pay off the loan.

TRENTON, N.J., Aug. 4 -- Senator and gubernatorial candidate Jon S. Corzine lent the president of New Jersey's largest state workers union $470,000 when the two were romantically involved three years ago, then forgave the debt last year.

Corzine defended the transaction, first described in reports Thursday in the Newark Star-Ledger and the New York Times.

Corzine turned the 10-year mortgage into a gift to Carla Katz last December, according to court documents. The move came a week after he kicked off his campaign for governor and several months after the two stopped dating.