Governor deflects snow, defends Reform Jersey Now

FREEHOLD – Gov. Chris Christie signed a FEMA application today and expects federal assistance on the ground for snow relief

FREEHOLD – Gov. Chris Christie signed a FEMA application today and expects federal assistance on the ground for snow relief on Monday.

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But criticisms of his trip to Disney World and the lieutenant governor’s trip to Mexico during the storm were still flurrying.

He credited his staff and told the press, “There’s not any one person that can deal with this crisis.”

Search and rescue missions of over 500 stranded motorists on Route 280 in the Oranges, the Garden State Parkway between Holmdel and Telegraph Hill, and on 195 took precedence over clearing other routes. Logistical difficulties because of the amount of snow – which required front-end loaders rather than plows in places like Route 18 in Monmouth County – contributed to some of problems, as well.

But, all in all, Christie said the state had 95 percent of its roads cleared by Tuesday afternoon. And given the option again, he would still choose family vacation at Space Mountain over the snowy doldrums of the Pine Barrens.

“I was not going to rescind my child’s Christmas gift,” he said. If he was here, Christie said he would have been doing the same thing he was doing in Orlando – staying in touch with staff and directors. “”I would not have been out, like, driving a plow,” he said.

Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno’s cruise in Mexico was one of her cancer-battling father’s “last wishes,” Christie said today.

But the administration didn’t want to release the details until it became part of the bigger argument made by state Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) – that the lieutenant governorship was created to alleviate the need for the Senate president to act as governor in situations like these.

Christie disagreed, saying the lieutenant governor’s position was created to alleviate the long absences when governors don’t finish their terms – which happened twice in a row – and the Senate president must lead the executive and legislative branches for extended periods of time.

He called out state Sens. Dick Codey (D-Roseland), Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen), and Lesniak by name for swarming Guadagno without knowing the details of her trip.

Then he lambasted Lesniak some more. “You get an email from Ray Lesniak criticizing me for being in Florida… from Florida,” he said, stressing the irony. “He spends more time in Paris, France than he does in Elizabeth, NJ.”

Christie jumped on local mayors who alleged that state’s budget cuts hampered municipal snow clean-up, like Brick’s Republican mayor, Steve Acropolis.

“If he can’t adjust, maybe he’s in the wrong job,” Christie said.

Christie’s grades on the state’s handling of the snow: A for effort, B-plus for results.

 

Reform Jersey Now

 

Christie said so long as the money that Reform Jersey Now pumped into his campaign was done legally, then why would he care that the list of donors contained state-contracted entities.

“I’m not going to have (Assembly Majority Leader) Joe Cryan lecture me about campaign financing,” Christie said, quickly making reference to $227,000 in illegal campaign contributions that his opponent, Jon Corzine, was accused of taking from the State Democratic Party this November. Cryan was state party leader at the time of the contributions.

Instead of addressing the issue with Reform Jersey, Christie spent his time speaking about the Democrats, “champions of fake reform,” who are unwilling to clean up their own campaign finances, but are intent on demanding clean campaigns from everyone else.

Christie said Reform Jersey – by voluntarily releasing their donor list – has done more for campaign finance transparency than Cryan, Buono, and state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) put together.

 

 

Governor deflects snow, defends Reform Jersey Now