Good news, bad news
from the Christie campaign
Coming in 10th place with only
1.8 percent of the caucus vote and
earning a whopping zero delegates,
it looks like our beloved governor’s
cover is blown – the people of Iowa
understand who and what he is
about. Voters saw through the
phony “tough guy from Jersey” act
JIM
and the rest of the country is
starting to follow suit.
TOMA
That act only plays for so long.
We here in New Jersey bought into it
(some bought it twice), but sooner or later you have to
walk it not just talk it. Being tough isn’t being vindictive
and stubborn; it’s having convictions, morals and living
up to your word. Being a leader isn’t insulting and
embarrassing people who have the courage to get up
and ask a question at a town hall meeting; it’s having
the courage to stand up to certain lobbies, Wall Street
and large donors, and saying “I’m going to do the right
thing for our public servants – the thing I swore to them
that I would do and I’m going to work with them to figure out a way to do these things without hurting all the
citizens of our state.”
At a recent Republican debate when referring to
Donald Trump’s call to void his losing results from Iowa,
Governor Christie said to Trump: “You don’t get a do
over.”
But isn’t Christie’s whole platform a “do over?” Consider his fluid stances on gun control to Common Core
to Planned Parenthood to Syrian refugees to
supporting a Democratic Supreme Court nominee and
on and on. I understand anyone is allowed to change
his mind, but day to day and audience to audience?
By now you know the results from the New Hampshire primary, but as of this writing, the latest polls
show Christie dropping in the Granite State as he did in
Iowa. His self-proclaimed “last stand” is starting to fade
as New Hampshire’s voters are getting the message that
we in New Jersey fighting for our lives and careers
already understand.
Of course there has to be a negative to the inevitability of our Governor coming home: Who thinks he’s
going to take it with dignity, class and humility?
The bad news is the year and a half he has left in his
term is going to be focused on targeting us – the public
workers who he perceives as the enemy. Instead of saying “Hey we’re all in this together, let’s figure out a way
to work together,” Christie will be determined to ramp
up his rhetoric against funding the pension, whether
through a referendum or through obligated contributions.
So as his ill-fated campaign draws to a close, the
story will go on for us with the day-to-day fight for what
was and is contractually and constitutionally ours.
As always, we need to stay engaged in the process,
know the issues, inquire how to help, vote and continue
to spread our message: We are not looking for any
handouts or more than what was negotiated. We have
elderly retired officers in New Jersey living day to day,
losing their homes and struggling to