Everyone is saying that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
acted in his self-interest when he scheduled a special election to replace the
recently deceased Frank Lautenberg in the U.S. Senate for three weeks before
the general elections this coming November. The estimates for the additional
cost to hold two elections in one month have run as high as $24 million. What
makes this additional expenditure by a self-proclaimed fiscal conservative
particularly absurd is the fact that Christie will appoint an interim Senator who
will fill the seat until January no matter when the election is held.
The pundits seem to agree that Christie decided to hold this
expensive second Election Day so that he wouldn’t have to face a ballot that
had the popular Newark Mayor Cory Booker on the opposite ticket. Booker
announced he was running for Senate long before Senator Lautenberg passed away,
and Booker’s presence on the ballot would likely compel more minorities to
vote, many of whom Christie fears would vote straight Democratic party line.
It’s not that Christie is afraid to lose the governor’s
race. He’s afraid that he won’t rack up the awesome totals he thinks he needs
to prove to the Republican Party that he can draw enough cross-over votes to
win the presidential election in 2016.
But what some are calling a deft political maneuver by
Christie with only short-term costs may come back to haunt New Jersey’s BMOC
because Christie committed a cardinal sin of communications: he acted against
the image that people have of him.
Christie’s enormous popularity among independents both in
New Jersey and nationally is based on his bipartisanship. He talks like a
centrist and in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy he reached across the aisle
to President Obama for the good of the people of his state.
Flimsy, inconsequential, dubious—those are the words that
come to mind when I consider the possible advantage to Christie by costing New
Jersey taxpayers $24 million to hold a special election.
What makes it worse is that Christie has taken such a hard
line on cutting programs that actually help the citizens of New Jersey. Among
others, the New York Times has
pointed that Christie has cut the New Jersey budget to the bone.
Christie cut $10 million from the after-school programs for
at-risk children. He cut $8.6 million in tuition subsidies for college
students. He cut $12 million in charity care at hospitals. He vetoed a $24
million plan for early voting in New Jersey.
Christie’s actions say that he thinks New Jersey can’t afford this help
to the poor and disenfranchised, but it can afford to have a separate election
for one office three weeks before the general election.
Christie is known for putting people ahead of politics. But in
the case of the special election, he chose to put politics first. He didn’t do
it to advance a piece of legislation, nor to help the Republican Party. No, he
did it to benefit himself and himself alone.
And everybody knows that Christie acted in extreme
self-interest as opposed to acting in the best interest of his constituents. He
is living in a dream world if he thinks people are going to forget, mainly
because his opponents in both major parties will keep reminding everyone.
In one Machiavellian one act, Christie has soiled his image.
He has lost his big edge in the competition against other Republican
presidential hopefuls and destroyed the centrist “good guy” image he created
for himself in his handling of the Sandy crisis.
Chris Christie has destroyed his brand.
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