NEW YORK, NY November 09, 2009 —President Obama came to New Jersey to publicly support Gov. John Corzine's failed re-election bid. Now, details about the White House's behind-the-scenes role in the New Jersey governor's race are coming out and WNYC's Bob Hennelly has them.

REPORTER: State Senate President Dick Codey says back in July he got a call from the White House asking if he would run for governor. Codey said internal party polls were showing he could beat Republican candidate and former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie by double digits.

CODEY: The White House, the political director, called me and said he would be meeting with the president, vice president, and the chief of staff and asked if he could say to the president that I might be interested in running if in fact Mr. Corzine got out of the race. I said yes.

REPORTER: Now that was in the summer when 44 people, including dozens of Democrats, were caught up in a federal corruption sweep. Despite his low poll numbers, Corzine decided to push ahead with his re-election bid and Codey sat this one out.

Calls to Corzine and the White House were not returned.