MORRISTOWN, NJ (OP-ED) – Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was once one of the most popular guys in town. Everyone loved him. Democrats courted him. Republicans adored him. He was fiery, he was boisterous and everyone believed he was the right guy for the job in New Jersey.
But Christie had many mouths to feed with competing interests. Backed by the Republican Party and aided by the powerful George Norcross Democrat machine, coming out clean was nearly impossible for the former prosecutor.
Then there was Bridgegate. Then there was beach gate, where a photo of Christie at Island Beach State Park during a public state park closure went viral and still provides the internet with a steady stream of memes.
Christie’s favor started to wane when he went after the public unions and their pensions. He picked a fight with a force he could not beat. He claimed his fight was, but years later, when the dust settled, we realize the entire thing was to appease Norcross who runs the state’s largest public union insurance company. It was never about doing what was right, it was about moving union money from one pocket to another.
Unions caught on and went on the attack to damage his already crumbling reputation. Then there was bail reform. It was Chris Christie who pushed New Jersey into letting criminals go free without bail, not Jon Corzine and not Phil Murphy. Once again, we learned Christie had his hands in the cookie jar on the matter, caving to political lobbyists pushing the bail reform agenda nationwide.
It was Chris Christie that opened the door and rolled out the red carpet for Governor Phil Murphy. His waning popularity sunk his Lt. Governor, Kim Guadagno. There was no way Kim could distance herself from the stink created by Christie.
She lost to Phil Murphy, setting up eight years of leadership.
It is because of Chris Christie that a Republican might never win the governor’s seat in New Jersey, ever again.
Now, he’s trying to convince America that he’s the right guy for the Oval Office in 2024, but it’s not working. He is polling between 0% and 1% consistently.
The fact is, as the 2000s sitcom title says, Everybody Hates Chris. He’s just the last person to get the memo.
It is because of Chris Christie that a straight-and-narrow guy like Jack Ciattarelli lost to Phil Murphy in 2021. Jack lost to Phil Murphy, who had just come off a year of locking down schools, shutting down businesses, jailing business owners, forcing vaccines on school children, forcing masks on school children, and letting violent inmates out of jail.
Now, Ciattarelli is expected to go up against a Democrat like Steve Fulop, a Marine Corps veteran who served during the invasion of Iraq. Fulop gave up his job on Wall Street to serve the country. Like Murphy, he’s also a Goldman Sachs veteran.
Chris Christie left a legacy in New Jersey, that is certain, but that legacy essentially killed any chance Republicans will seat a governor in Trenton in the near future.