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Republican Governor Chris Christie has won the re-election in New Jersey. As the incumbent, he took 58.6% of the votes in the heavily democratic state. The article mentions that the only other republican to win over 50% of the votes since George H. W. Bush in 1988. Throughout his campaign, Governor Christie stressed that he likes compromise. In all honesty though, Governor Christie obviously knew that if he should win in the more democratic states, he couldn't take on a conservative republican stance. What else do you think contributed to his big win?
5 comments:
Maybe the fact that Christie did a pretty good job with the Hurricane Sandy crisis and didn't make it a Katrina dilemma (no rhyme intended) helped him win because he had a better track record than his opponent. I don't know who his opponent was but maybe they had views that were too liberal for some democrats so that could have affected the results of the election also. Good for Christie, even though he is trashed by the media sometimes (he deserves it at times) this is a good win for him as he isn't that bad of a governor. Hopefully now he stay out of media headlines and focus on the problems in New Jersey.
Gov. Christie's successful re-election campaign is due to a number of factors. For one, his campaign outspent the Democratic opponent's campaign by a margin of 5-1. The Democrat, Buono, had lackluster support from her party. The Democratic Governors Association only contributed $5,000 to Buono's campaign; they contributed $6 million to the governor's race in VA. Also, Christie's effective handling of Superstorm Sandy significantly increased voter approval.
But what's very interesting about his success is his ability to attract the Latino and female vote. Both groups lean Democratic nationally. This is important for the GOP because they could only hope that if he were to run nationally, he would be able to pull those groups away frmo the Democrats.
Although his bipartisanship is highly publicized, he's not quite as moderate as the public may make him out to be. Compared to the Tea Party dominated headlines, he could almost seem liberal, but his values lie in conservatism. He is very conservative on social issues and is fairly conservative on economic issues. He vetoed a proposed minimum wage hike previously that was just approved today through a NJ ballot proposition.
I concur with Nathan and also hope that he focuses on NJ's problems rather than setting his sights on the national stage and ignore those who elected him to fame.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/nyregion/chris-christie-re-elected-governor-of-new-jersey.html?hp
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/1105/Election-results-Chris-Christie-re-elected-governor-of-New-Jersey
Nathan I did not even see your "rhyme" but I do agree that the way he handled Hurricane Sandy was big part of it. Along with a larger budget, and larger public attraction it was really no surprise that Christie won this election. And I state this because Christie has had a "commanding lead in the polls" for months before the actually election took place.
Governor Christie even had 32% of Democratic support according to CBS polls on this link:http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57610977/no-surprise-chris-christie-re-elected-as-new-jersey-governor/
Brandon makes some excellent points in his comments, particularly on how successful Christie has been at framing himself as a moderate, even though he retains notably conservative values.
Superstorm Sandy definitely did not heart his standings, and his positive interaction with the Obama administration during the disaster (and during the 2012 election) endeared him to Dems in his state.
But like it's been noted, Christie is good at framing himself as a compromiser. He did some interesting politic-ing involving the New Jersey Supreme Court's decision to allow gay marriage in the state. He--seemingly begrudgingly-- upheld the courts decision, while keeping his own opinion rather ambiguous. Such an issue was too hotbed for him to get too embroiled in during an election year.
It's been a few days since the win, but I thought I'd offer my thoughts on Christie's victory in the wake of all the frenzy over his re-election.
I’m going to agree with Brandon on this one as well. Christie’s 60 percent victory over Buono is significant, but he’s not the moderate that the bipartisan popularity might indicate. Christie’s strength is that he comes off as authentic – he uses the media very well in this sense. He’s criticized by some for being abrasive, obnoxious even, but he comes off as very authentic.
He has also framed himself as a reasonable Republican, what with his acceptance of the expanded Medicaid portion of Obamacare back in February. But, I’d also like to point out that he won 57 percent of the female vote despite running against a pro-choice female. This April poll actually notes that Christie was doing better among female constituents than males.
http://www.monmouth.edu/assets/0/32212254770/32212254991/32212254992/32212254994/32212254995/30064771087/e1dc9866-eae8-400a-b0f7-0246c0ae6f39.pdf
Yes, Christie’s views are most certainly not moderate. But, I’m curious as to how his perceived leaning is going to work out among more far-right conservatives. I know at least that his interaction with Obama during superstorm Sandy wasn’t exactly a favorite among some conservatives.
As for his track record, Christie has done well to avoid media scrutiny in the wake of his big win. This Economist article is worth a read. It examines some of Christie’s decision-making with regards to major infrastructure projects during the recession.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/11/chris-christie-and-gop
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