The Republican primary voters have spoken and it is Chris Christie who has been selected to carry the party’s banner in November. Let me be among the first of Politicker's columinsts to congratulate him on his victory.
Now, it is time for the rancor to be put aside and no matter how strong anyone’s republicans’ feelings may be for Mayor Steve Lonegan; this is not the time to take a walk on the Republican nominee for Governor. Chris Christie is going to have a difficult enough time against Jon Corzine without having Republicans taking a walk on the party’s candidate.
If any of you are dissatisfied with Chris Christie as the Republican nominee, please, do you really think not helping him get elected is going to do anything other than helping Jon Corzine get re-elected? If you are a “RINO” perhaps that is what you want, but think about it. The only way to end Democrat control is to get behind the party’s candidate, strong and hard and do everything to elect Chris Christie. Otherwise you will get 4 more years of the last 4 years.
Before I say anymore,I’d like to commend Mayor Steve Lonegan on running a dogged campaign and nipping on the establish heels perhaps unlike no outside candidate in recent history.
Lonegan’s conservative message was so strong that it forced Chris Christie to adopt and hammer the message of “Chris Christie, Conservative”, in order to dilute the potential of Lonegan’s building a base and I believe it was this strategy, more than any other that undermined the Lonegan campaign.
The real good that Lonegan achieved was showing that it is going to take a conservative message to draw a clear distinction from Jon Corzine. The one thing that is not going to get a republican elected is to be democrat “lite”.
Clearly, this will be an uphill battle, not because of Christie’s qualifications, but because of the enormous financial deficit he will be facing during a general election. Given the fact that Chris Christie has chosen to accept public financing and Jon Corzine will be self financed, it means that Christie will be out spent by at least 5 to 1.
Matching funds are capped at $10 million and self financed candidates are not limited to what they can raise or what they can spend. In Corzine’s US Senate campaign and first gubernatorial campaign he spent somewhere in the vicinity of $120 million.
Given the additional star power of a popular President and members of his cabinet and other Democrat luminaries coming in to campaign for Jon Corzine, Chris Christie will have a huge hill to climb. That is why republicans must come together to support the chosen candidate, Chris Christie.
Ineffective school funding continues to increase, property taxes continue to rise, homestead rebates are being cut and virtually eliminated and we have a Supreme Court that is totally out of control and telling the legislature that they have to spend more. The Department of Environmental Protection, in New Jersey, is an incredible hindrance to economic growth and business taxes, among others continue rise. This has been the hallmark of the last 4 years.
The so called “millionaires’” tax is taxing millionaires at $250,000 so it is now leveled at ¼ millionaires. The layoffs that continue in the private sector apparently have had no effect on the size of the state’s workforce which has grown from 60,000 in 2001 to 85,000 today.
If Chris Christie is going to attract voters to his message, it has to be the republican message of smaller government, lower taxes, more personal responsibility and in even in listening to Alex DeCroce tonight, he mentioned Chris Christie’s conservative approach. That is how Chris Christie will get himself elected. If he deviates from that approach, we will have four more years of Jon Corzine.
If anyone thinks Jon Corzine is going to be a push over, think again. The state worker unions, the state AFL/CIO and the NJEA will back Jon Corzine. That is a fact. This will be a very tough battle and by the end it, it will be get very nasty and when the stakes are that high, it always does.
I would really like it if just once, a campaign would be run and decided on the issues. But I think those days are long gone. Once again, congratulations to Chris Christie for winning the Republican nomination.The candidates have been chosen, the camps have been staffed and the battle lines have been drawn. To paraphrase what they say at the start of the Olympics, “Let the Campaigns Begin”.
One additional Election Night Update, this oneforDistrict 23:
Mike Doherty upset incumbent Senator Marcia Karrow by 1,000 votes in Warren and Hunterdon Counties. Congratulations to the Doherty family and his campaign team. Kudos go to Mike's swat team of Ed Traz, Linna Selby, and Bill Winkler. Ed's mail was perfect and he continues his record of Republican Primary wins. Linna, who runs Scott Garrett's political operation, secured a win for a key ally of the Congressman. Winkler gets another Senator he can have a beer with.
