But Mr. Salmore maintained that the Republicans could easily build on the record of ill will toward Mr. Corzine's millions built up by Mr. Florio's relentless attacks, and add to it a favorite Republican theme, that Democrats cannot be trusted with money.
Much of the government's physical case is built on cellphone records but few actual recordings, a handful of e-mails, hotel and private jet receipts and secret checks written from an enthusiastic, elderly banking heiress to help Mr. Edwards with a "personal problem".
Mr. Stoiber, a hard-working, somewhat dour former aide to Mr. Strauss, built on this record, attracting Internet start-ups and helping build a dazzling Munich airport.
He was acquitted of the charges in the Manhattan case in 2011, but the Brooklyn case, built on secretly recorded audiotapes of Mr. Boyland discussing the bribes, wound on.
"My whole career has been built on track record and what things sell for in the open market, not what a gallerist is promoting as the hottest thing," he said.
The last grey streaks of light are fading as the greatest darts player in history sighs and considers the personal cost of creating a legacy built on a record 16 world titles.
The would-be reformers could have built on this record with important changes like breaking down anticompetitive barriers, reducing administrative waste, eliminating mandate-created distortions of the health insurance market, and reasonable reforms to a medico-legal liability system run amok.
"The privacy piece was critical," said Al Rapp, corporate health care manager at United Parcel Service, which recently introduced a health care program built on computerizing the records of 80,000 nonunion employees.
But this popularity is built on an established record of local interest.
The promise of America is that all of us will have access to opportunity, and I want to run a 2008 campaign that renews that promise, a campaign built on a lifetime record of results.
