“This has been a frustrating, slow-motion process that, at least publicly, has created an unstable atmosphere on the issue and a void of practical, needed debate,” said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools..."

POLITICAL MEMO Patience With Corzine Wears Thin By DAVID W. CHEN Published: September 29, 2007 TRENTON, Sept. 28 — Once again, Gov. Jon S. Corzine made his way to the backyard patio of the governor’s mansion in Princeton on a muggy day and declared himself in good physical condition. Once again, he brushed aside lingering questions about his past relationship with a woman who is president of a large state employees union. And once again, he said that his administration was not ready to discuss in any detail a much-anticipated plan to squeeze revenue from state assets like the New Jersey Turnpike. Nor did he want to talk about the delayed initiatives on education, housing and energy that remain lodged in the government pipeline.

It seemed Wednesday afternoon as if little had changed since his news conferences in the spring and summer — also occasioned by medical procedures made necessary by his near-fatal traffic accident in April on the Garden State Parkway.

To Mr. Corzine’s most ardent supporters, the delay speaks to the administration’s dedication to pursuing the best policy, regardless of political pressures. But to a growing chorus of fellow Democrats and others who share many of the administration’s goals, Mr. Corzine has taken too long to do too little.

Maybe the governor did lose some of his momentum because of the severe injuries he suffered in the accident and the intensive rehabilitation that followed, these supporters say. Maybe the administration has been politically adrift because several of his top political advisers are moving on. And maybe he has been distracted by the persistent nibbling into his political and financial dealings with the union president, Carla Katz, whom he dated several years ago and left a wealthy woman.

Words like “frustration” and “malaise” are beginning to creep into the conversations of people who work in the administration, recently left it or deal with it regularly.

“The Corzine administration is like a bad sequel to ‘Groundhog Day,’” said David Pringle, campaign director for the New Jersey Environmental Federation, which endorsed Mr. Corzine in 2005. “You keep waiting for something to happen, but it’s the same thing all over.”

Nor is it likely, according to the conventional wisdom swapped in the State House corridors, that Mr. Corzine will unveil anything too controversial before the November elections, in which all 120 legislative seats are being contested.

As a result, the Legislature’s lame-duck session in November and December could be one of the most important in recent memory. Among the knotty issues still on the table are Mr. Corzine’s plan for the state’s toll roads, a new formula to finance public education and a master plan to overhaul the state’s energy priorities.

As recently as Friday, two Assembly members filed a lawsuit demanding the release of a consultant’s report on the governor’s plan for the toll roads, demonstrating a degree of uncertainty that even some of his staunchest supporters — labor unions — have criticized. But as for the pace of progress, Rae Roeder, president of Local 1033 of the Communication Workers of America, said that Mr. Corzine was trying to play various interest groups against one another to buy time and “divide and conquer.” “It appears to be slow, but it isn’t,” said Ms. Roeder, who has been at odds with the Corzine administration over labor contracts and pension fund investments. “I believe this is deliberate. Someone could characterize what Corzine is doing as consensus-building, but I think our members think he’s duplicitous.”

When asked at his news conference on Wednesday whether he believes he has been too deliberate in his governing, Mr. Corzine dismissed the notion and said, “Let’s make sure that we’re being thoughtful about how we’re approaching these issues.” He also gave himself good, but incomplete, marks in assessing his first two years in office. “I feel pretty good about where we are,” he said. “Do I feel satisfied? No. Is there a lot of work to do? Yes.”

For now, the public seems to agree. According to two polls made public this week, Mr. Corzine is enjoying solid approval ratings. And his most spirited supporters salute his determination and his patience in wrestling with some of the state’s most vexing and deep-rooted issues.

“This is a governor that hasn’t chosen to pick off the low-hanging fruit and do five or six easy things,” said Eric Shuffler, who was an aide to two former governors, James E. McGreevey and Richard J. Codey. “He’s chosen to take his time to focus on the state’s long-term issues, and these are not issues that lend themselves to quick or easy decisions.”

Still, it has led to a restlessness among like-minded groups. For instance, housing advocates have been disappointed by Mr. Corzine’s inability to deliver on a promise to unveil a plan for 100,000 homes and apartments over the next 10 years for poor, working-class and middle-class residents — something administration officials had said would be released by the end of last year.

“We should’ve had a plan sometime last year, so we’re frustrated,” said Diane Sterner, executive director of the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey.

Educators had hoped that a new formula for financing public schools would be released earlier this year, but now the timetable is unclear.

“This has been a frustrating, slow-motion process that, at least publicly, has created an unstable atmosphere on the issue and a void of practical, needed debate,” said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools.

And environmentalists are questioning the delay in filling vacancies on such agencies as the Pinelands and Highlands commissions. “I think they spend too much time internally on trying to make things perfect,” Mr. Pringle said. “It’s almost like working on the perfect Windows system. When you’re developing Windows 2000, you want to make it best it can be. But at some point you’ve got to release it, because your company needs to make some money and have a product.”