OT: State offices closing at 230pm

[DJ Spanky]

Exactly. The stupid R primary voters nominated Kim G, who was essentially Buono 2.0. Why nominate the LG of an extremely unpopular Gov, right? They messed up and dropped the ball. 2021 should be very different.

Absolutely no question that they screwed up the nomination.

Christie is a fascinating case study of politics! He had a historically good first term and then a historically bad second term. Literally the two polar opposites.

Yep, and I agree with your further analysis that he basically punted after bridge gate.

 

[T2Kplus10]

Yep, and I agree with your further analysis that he basically punted after bridge gate.

+1
It's the only thing that explains his complete 180 change in attitude, openness, and behavior. This was told to me by 2 separate people that would really know and both said the same thing.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

Wait...is this serious lol??!

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

Well, then screw you NJ, I'm just going to look after myself.

That's the way I read it.

Gas tax and the giant fund it created that he could use to pay off some folks for future favors.. CHECK

Many more minor examples of the same thing. One of the minor things that really irked me was suing some Sandy relief fund because it was not THE Sandy fund run by his wife. What BS. Any good will Christie had earned was then gone for me.

 

[RU205]

I was pretty close to the situation for a few years and I saw the following. And this is just my opinion. During the first term, he had an open door, worked with a lot of folks very well (except union), and even before Sandy, was doing a very good job. Obviously, his handling of Sandy juiced his numbers and he also made a deal with Norcross/Sweeney/Joe D to only put up token opposition in 2013 (i.e., Buono) in exchange for not going all out to flip the legislature to the Rs (which never would have happened anyway). His sights were set on the WH.

The Bridgegate silliness caught him totally by surprise and he thought it would quickly pass. Let's be honest, it was a glorified prank by a few stupid employees definitely without his knowledge. Absolutely no doubt about this to me. But since he looked like the frontrunner for 2016, this got hyper-politicized and severely damaged him. I believe, when he realized this was not going away and that the public didn't believe him, him essentially said screw you to NJ. His attitude was.....after all the good things I've done, you are going to pin this silly "scandal" on me when I had no part in it? Well, then screw you NJ, I'm just going to look after myself. All of those open doors were shut and he just focused on the WH and then helping Trump.

I agree with you, but I would add in 1 more thing. When Obama came to NJ, and CC was friendly to him, most of his conservative base was not happy. That was the first time his base turned on him. The bridge gate thing took it to another level.