HACKENSACK – Gov. Chris Christie, flanked by former New York City Mayor and 2008 United States Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, stood before more than 300 supporters at Bergen County Republican Organization headquarters on Friday and staked his 2013 claim to the county he lost in the 2009 gubernatorial election.
“There is no way that I want to go through another election night, like I went through four years ago, when I lost Bergen County by 6,000 votes,” Christie said after campaign stops in Rutherford and River Edge. “If I lose Bergen County by 6,000 votes this time, we’ve got to worry about our freeholders, we’ve got to worry about our sheriff, we’ve got to worry about our legislative candidates, and we don’t want to do that.”
Christie has his shifted focus in the last few days to several legislative races where the state Republicans believe they have a chance to pick up seats, including in Bergen-based Legislative District 38. With the GOP’s L.D. 38 candidate, Oradell attorney Fernando Alonso, looking on, the governor laced into Democratic incumbent state Sen. Bob Gordon.
“Mr. Gordon is running ads on TV, saying he reaches across the aisle to work with Governor Christie. Let me tell you what Bob Gordon does when he reaches across the aisle – he throws a punch at me,” Christie said. “When he reaches across the aisle, he puts roadblocks between me and progress for New Jersey. We have to get rid of Bob Gordon, and get rid of him on Tuesday.
“The people I have met throughout this campaign know my record of standing up for them and working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do the right thing, like capping property taxes, cutting business taxes and supporting tenure reform,” Gordon responded in an email. “And I look forward to continuing to represent the middle-class values we share.”
Earlier in downtown Rutherford, Giuliani spoke glowingly about Christie’s record.
“The state is doing much better now than it was four years ago,” Giuliani said. “I think [Christie] is going to have a big win. This man has unlimited possibilities.”
Giuliani went on to tell PolitickerNJ.com that “of course he can win if he runs” if Christie chooses to run for U.S. President in 2016.
But regardless of Christie’s potential presidential ambitions, he kept his focus fully on the 2013 gubernatorial race when spoke to the Hackensack crowd.
“We’re driving home for the biggest margin we can get,” Christie said. “We want to take advantage of this once-in-a-generation opportunity to turn this blue state red.”
