In many ways, it seemed like a perfect fit.

Jon S. Corzine, one of the most liberal members of the U.S. Senate, came to Trenton in 2006 to lead one of the most liberal states in the nation.

Yes, there were deeply entrenched financial problems that could hamper his visions of better schools and expanded health coverage. But Corzine's fiscal acumen, honed through a career on Wall Street, would help resolve them. At least that's what he and his campaign said.

In reality, economic issues buried Corzine in Tuesday's election.

His biggest attempt to solve the debt problems he inherited resulted in a colossal and costly defeat. The national recession soon followed. It did not create Corzine's political woes, but it compounded them.

For Corzine, it turned out the timing was all wrong.

The recession and soaring unemployment would have damaged any incumbent. But it was particularly difficult for Corzine, a former chairman of the investment bank Goldman Sachs, whose Wall Street resumé suddenly became a liability. His failure, like the failures of many before him, to significantly change the state's tax system became more glaring.

And while his often-awkward and professorial manners worked while talking policy, his inability to connect with the public meant he built up little personal capital to face an increasingly angry and anxious electorate.

"Nobody was going to cut any slack for Jon Corzine, because there was a simple sense that he doesn't understand what a middle-class New Jersey taxpayer goes through," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.

Sensing a lack of enthusiasm for Corzine's reelection as he faced Republican Christopher J. Christie and independent Chris Daggett, his campaign tried to tie him to President Obama. But it didn't work.

Obama remains popular in New Jersey, with approval ratings of 57 percent, but he didn't drive the huge Election Day turnout Democrats hoped for.

Murray said any incumbent in New Jersey, with its long stretch of financial struggles, was going to feel the wrath of an uneasy public amid such economic turbulence. Democrats said Corzine was in a position few could have survived.

"Unfortunately for Corzine, he's the guy standing there holding the bag," said Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester).

Carl Golden, the onetime press secretary for former Govs. Thomas H. Kean and Christie Whitman, said polls and many observers, including himself, "didn't really appreciate the core depth of that anger."

But there were also major state issues that damaged Corzine even before the economic turmoil struck.

After both parties contributed to the state's annual budget deficits, voters had seen years of rising taxes and persistent short falls. Even during boom times, the state's economy was sluggish compared with the rest of the nation.

Corzine made a go at solving some of New Jersey's economic problems, but with mixed results. He called for "historic" property-tax reforms, but only slowed continuing increases. He worked hard to balance the budget, but also increased spending in his first two years. The progress he made was largely wiped out by the recession.

Corzine struggled to work with a Legislature controlled by his own party, and seemed to disregard image problems that muddied his message.

For example, he campaigned as a reformer, but continued to write huge checks to political machines that fostered several major corruption convictions. One guilty verdict came in late October, giving Republicans an opening to paint Corzine as an "enabler."

But the biggest self-inflicted wound came when Corzine placed a huge bet on a plan to increase tolls by up to 800 percent to halve state debt. The reaction was swift, angry, and decisive.

Murray said Corzine's numbers fell when he introduced the toll idea, but really dove once Corzine went on a public tour to sell the plan.

"Most voters walked out and said, 'This is a guy that doesn't understand the pain we're going through,' " he said. "That lack of an ability to connect was probably his Achilles' heel as a governor."

Corzine's approval ratings tanked, and months later, the Wall Street implosion made recovery near impossible.

Many of Corzine's backers say that the irony is that he is friendly and charming in small settings, and that he has been most passionate while standing up for the needy.

"Gov. Corzine has been better at doing the work and being an effective governor than he has been at being an effective communicator," said Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr., (D., Camden). He said Corzine did not spend much time promoting his accomplishments, such as reforming school funding, cutting the state workforce, and expanding health care. "He has been defined as this Wall Street guy who is out of touch, and that's not accurate, and that's what stuck, and he paid a price for it."

Corzine had said this year's race would be his last. Before the election, friends said the governor, who has put more than $120 million into his campaigns, talked about going back to the private sector once his days in office end.

It would be a return to an arena that gave Corzine the prestige and wealth that paved the way for his entry into public life. Corzine built his career at Goldman as a bond trader, choosing the right bets at the right time.

His political life, however, has been marked by inopportune circumstances. Corzine joined the Senate in 2001, just as his party lost the White House. He led Democrats' efforts to take back the Senate in 2003 and 2004, but faced a Republican tide that swept George W. Bush back into office and expanded the GOP majority.

He came to Trenton in 2006 with big ideas and a booming national economy. That all ended with a recession triggered in the financial world Corzine once strode.

"He's a very unlucky governor," State Sen. Shirley Turner (D., Mercer) said Tuesday night amid the disappointment of the Democrats' postelection party. "He made a lot of decisions that rubbed people the wrong way, and he did it his way. The people spoke today, and said they did not want another four years of his way."

Contact staff writer Jonathan Tamari at 609-989-9016 or jtamari@phillynews.com.

Staff writer Adrienne Lu contributed to this article.