Christopher Christie

One of the perks of office for the newly-elected Republican governor, Christopher Christie, will be the ability to deliver the state GOP establishment for the 2012 presidential candidate of his choice. Expect most of the state's Republican County Chairmen, fundraisers, legislators and key local officials to follow Christie's lead.   

Unless the Legislature changes the law, the New Jersey presidential primary is scheduled for February 7, 2012.  Democrats are likely to have an incumbent running without significant opposition, and the GOP primary will be less competitive if Christie picks a horse in that race.

New Jersey Governors have a history of delivering most party endorsements to one presidential candidate during the nomination process: Jon Corzine for Hillary Clinton in 2008, James E. McGreevey for Howard Dean in 2004, and Christine Todd Whitman for George W. Bush in 2000 and for Bob Dole in 1996.

State Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Linden) will become the new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a position that will take on increased clout for a Democratic-controlled Senate confirming appointments made by a Republican governor.  Scutari was no pushover for Gov. Jon Corzine’s appointees – he takes his advise and consent responsibilities seriously, and does not view Judiciary as a rubber stamp.  That’s something Gov.-elect Christopher Christie’s front office will need to take into consideration  And Scutari is intellectually superior to the current chairman, State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge).

Sarlo is expected to become Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee when State Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) becomes Majority Leader.

When Kim Guadagno resigns as Monmouth County Sheriff in January to become Lt. Governor, Christopher Christie will appoint an Acting Sheriff to fill the remaining year of her term.   The leading candidate, sources say, is Undersheriff Shaun Golden, a career law enforcement officer who ran against Guadagno at the 2007 Monmouth County GOP convention.  Golden, who was an administrative officer with the Toms River police department, received just 19% of the vote against Guadagno, who later hired him after she won the general election. 

Assemblyman David Rible (R-Wall) announced last week that he would not seek appointment as Sheriff, perhaps because Guadagno and her predecessor, Monmouth County GOP Chairman Joseph Oxley, had already decided on Golden.

When he was growing up, Chris Christie's folks must have taught him that when he went to a new playground, he should pick a fight with the biggest kid there to show he has grit even if he got his nose broken.  During this year's gubernatorial campaign, Chris Christie seemed to go out of his way pick fights with organized labor and he seemed to be picking fights that did not appear to need picking. 

First, Christie forcefully snubbed New Jersey's largest teachers' union, the NJEA, by refusing to even be interviewed for their endorsement. Then, he called for mass layoffs of state workers while Governor Corzine hammered out givebacks at the bargaining table.  And finally, he infuriated the building trades unions by demanding a ban on project labor agreements when they weren't on anyone's radar.  At the time, labor was not feeling too warm and fuzzy towards Corzine due to some tense battles with his administration. However, Christie's escalating anti-union rhetoric became a magic potion that turned Christie into labor's nightmare and Corzine into their dream date.

As Governor-Elect, Christie may believe he has to live up to his anti-union campaign rhetoric or face a backlash from conservatives in his party.  That would be a mistake. While the current union leadership may not have been able to effectively muster the get-out-the-vote strategy and bodies needed to reelect Corzine, treating the labor movement as vanquished and continuing to pick those fights will be counterproductive.  New Jersey is a highly unionized, pro-labor state. There are more than one million union members here, meaning more than one million union families. Significantly, one in every four New Jersey families includes a public worker.  Sixty thousand state worker union members will soon be more than potential voters.  They will also be his employees.  To deal with the fiscal tsunami and to make strides in education, the new Governor needs labor's cooperation, not their ire.

In the first week after his victory, Gov-elect, Christie signaled state worker unions that he wanted givebacks and that he would be willing to declare a financial emergency to get them. While he now speaks of "tough but fair negotiations" rather than of slashing and cutting, the threat of massive layoffs remains. Last week, Christie told some in the press that he wanted an astounding and impossible $1.5 billion in givebacks from the state worker unions.  That number was in addition to the $2 billion he intends to "save" by not funding the underfunded public employee pension again. Achieving those savings is impossible without a staggering number of layoffs in the tens of thousands. Now, that's a street fight in the making.

The ugly economy is taking its toll on everyone, including union working families. Their anger is not likely to subside just because the election is over.  If the economy and the job market do not improve, workers' fury will just be redirected towards the new guy in charge.  It remains to be seen whether Christie wants any allies in labor or whether he believes he doesn't need union members to succeed as Governor to or to win reelection.  He may decide that his rhetoric should become reality and he should treat unionized labor as the enemy for the next four years. It's his call.  If Christie chooses that path he politically endangers the many moderate Republican legislators who have made some good long-standing labor friends and who are up bat at the ballot box long before Christie will be.

However, if Christie and his legislative allies are imagining or desiring collaboration or support from organized labor or from union members in the months and years ahead and for future elections, there are FIVE THINGS HE MUST DO:

Governor-elect Christopher Christie and outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine have come to a simple agreement when it comes to major appointments and policy decisions in lame duck: if Corzine wants to do something, he'll fill Christie in.

"The understanding that the Governor and I came to was we would be talking to each other about it.  There was no agreement that we made that either certain appointments, or any appoints, would or would not go forward," said Christie at a press conference today in the Meadowlands.  "He's the governor until January 19.  I'm going to certainly weigh in, and he offered me the opportunity to weigh in, and he also offered to share with me any actions he was considering taking."

Christie said that the executive director of the transition office, Jeff Chiesa, reports that the Governor's office has been "very cooperative" and has "given him everything he's asked for." 

What Christie and Corzine don't have an agreement on is what happens if Corzine makes an appointment he does not agree with.

"If he does intend to do something and I weigh in saying that I wouldn't like him to do it, then we'll have to see what happens," said Christie.  "But hopefully we're going to just be able to work well together. He's going to respect the prerogatives of the people who voted on November 3rd, and I certainly respect his prerogative.  It's a four year term.  It's not a three year, 10 month term."

Gov. Jon Corzine shmoozes with Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero on the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce Walk to Washington in 2007.

The week after Christopher Christie takes office as governor, the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce will hold their 73rd annual Walk to Washington, a chartered train that allows special interests to schmooze with elected officials – “Build Your Contacts During Two Days of Intense Networking,” according to the chamber website.   But the rift between the business advocacy group and state Republicans could cause the trip to be a bust. 

Chamber of Commerce president Joan Verplanck became closely allied with Gov. Jon Corzine over the last few years.  She angered Republican legislative leaders by endorsing Corzine’s toll hike plan, causing some Republicans to call on local businesses to leave the organization.  Verplanck was reportedly considered by Corzine as a possible candidate for Lt. Governor.

Many top Republicans, including Christie, declined to participate in this year’s chamber trip to Washington.  " Christie wants to bring real change to Trenton and that comes with ending politics as usual, which this trip has become a symbol of,” his campaign manager, Bill Stepien, said earlier this year.  Verplanck called the GOP protest “stupid.”

Anne Evans Estabrook, a former Chamber of Commerce chair and briefly in 2008 a candidate for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination, contributed to Christopher Daggett's independent campaign for governor.

Republicans have also been upset with New Jersey Business & Industry Association President Philip Kirschner, who forged an alliance with Corzine.  In a not to subtle jab at Verplanck and Kirschner, Christie named Debra DiLorenzo, the President of the Southern New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, to his transition team. 

MADISON - Gov. Jon Corzine's campaign thought they were well positioned to win re-election against former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie leading right up to Election Day, Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan (D-Union) said today at a joint event with his Republican counterpart, Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains) at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

"Candidly, we thought we were going to win. We had numbers that showed on the Sunday before the election that we were in a position to win," said Cryan who, along with Webber, is also an assemblyman. 

Cryan made the point in response to a question from FDU pollster and political science professor Peter Woolley about whether the Democratic Party abandoned Corzine.  Although there were clearly base problems and the unaffiliated vote went heavily for Christie, the loss did not result in part from party leaders scuttling the campaign, as some have suggested after looking at the anemic turnout from the state's Democrat-rich urban voting districts. 

"We ran a campaign that appealed to the Democratic core in the hopes it would bring folks forward," Cryan said.  "Certainly we tried very hard to inspire the new Obama voter, who clearly needed more inspiration than we could provide." 

Cryan said that the campaign had trouble cutting through with their message.  Corzine had provided real tax relief, he argued, but it didn't live up to the campaign promise of "40 in 4" he made in 2005.

"You might have heard us mention more than once that we had the most property tax relief in history. It's not a lie -- we did. But nobody believed it," he said.

Webber argued that Corzine's appeal to their base on mammograms, abortion and guns did not work because the election above all a referendum on Corzine's four years in office.

"There's no one element of the campaign or election season that this is the reason why or that is the reason why. It is both a referendum on the incumbent and I think a real vote of confidence for our new governor," he said.

Webber said that Christie's victory showed that conservatives can win in traditionally Democratic states like New Jersey, though he stopped short of saying that it signifies a conservative resurgence in blue states. 

Christie, Webber said, did not run away from questions on hot button social issues.  But he didn't emphasize them. 

"You have your conservative principles and beliefs. You don't back away from them or try to explain them - you defend them when you have to.  But you talk about those kitchen table issues that voters care about," he said. "Certainly, Chris demonstrated that pro-life, pro-traditional family, pro-voucher, pro-tax cut Republican can win in New Jersey."

Richard Bagger first showed a penchant for making a reasonable argument as an eighteen-year-old Princeton University sophomore when he testified before Assembly Judiciary Committee in support of legislation that would raise the age for carry-out alcohol sales while allowing the drinking age in bars and restaurants to remain at 18.  He argued that the compromise would at least stop teenagers from being able to buy large quantities of liquor that could be distributed to underage drinkers.  The sponsor of that bill was Chuck Hardwick, a freshman Assemblyman from Bagger's hometown, Westfield.  Twelve years later, Hardwick backed Bagger's bid to succeed him in the Legislature. 

Gov.-elect Christopher Christie announced today that the 49-year-old Bagger would serve as Co-Chairman of his transition task force on budget and tax issues.

Bagger became involved in politics at a young age, backing George H.W. Bush for President in 1980 and Thomas Kean for Governor in 1981.  At age 23, as a Rutgers law student, Bagger was elected Westfield Councilman.  He became Mayor six years later.  When he ran for Assemblyman in 1991, he just narrowly won the Union County GOP convention against Alan Augustine, a Union County Freeholder and former Scotch Plains Mayor.  Augustine joined Bagger in the Assembly a year later when he won a special election convention and they two became political allies.

After winning an Assembly seat, Bagger sought an ethics ruling about his position as an associate at McCarter & English, one of the state's largest and most prestigious law firms. Told that he might have a conflict because some of his firm's clients did business with the state, Bagger quit his job.  He spent some time as a lawyer at Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Jersey before joining Pfizer at the invitation of Hardwick, a top executive.

Gov.-elect Christopher Christie's first big move - putting Richard Bagger and Robert Grady in charge of the state budget transition team - is an impressive display of gravitas and seems to avoid some of the early mistakes made by his predecessor, Jon Corzine.  Bagger and Grady offer an interesting contrast to Bradley Abelow and Gary Rose, two Goldman Sachs executives with no government or campaign experience, who were brought in by Corzine to run his economic shop. Christie has picked government insiders-turned-private sector outsiders who understand politics.  Democrats complained about Abelow and Rose all the time, but never about Bagger.

Bagger, who spent nearly a dozen years in the Legislature, knows his way around the state budget; he chaired the Assembly Appropriations Committee for four years, and was well-liked and respected by legislators from both parties.  He left the State Senate in after one year to move up within the Pfizer corporate structure, so he bears no responsibility for budgets passed by Democratic governors.  He also understands local government; he was a Mayor and Councilman in Westfield before his election to the Assembly.

Grady is an expert on budget matters; he was the Associate Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under President George H.W. Bush, and understands New Jersey politics - and the media - from his years as Gov. Thomas Kean's Communications Director and as Chief of Staff to U.S. Rep. Millicent Fenwick.  He returns to New Jersey after spending more than fifteen years as a partner at the Carlyle Group, one of the nation's largest private equity firms.

Former State Sen. Richard Bagger (R-Westfield), left, and former OMB official Robert Grady, will head Gov.-elect Chris Christie's budget transition team

Former State Sen. Richard Bagger and former Kean aide Robert Grady will chair Gov.-elect Christopher Christie's transition task force on budget and taxes.

Bagger, a top Pfizer executive, chaired the Assembly Appropriations Committee for four years.  Grady, a millionaire venture capitalist who retired in June from his post as Chairman of Carlyle Venture Partners, served as Communications Director under Kean, and as Executive Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget under Bush.  He also served as Chief of Staff to U.S. Rep. Millicent Fenwick.  He also spent ten years as a professor at the Stanford University Business School. 

The Task Force Co-Chairmen will help develop recommendations to address the fiscal deficit that state experts have estimated at over $8 billion for the coming fiscal year 2011, and to respond to the shortfall in projected state revenues in the current fiscal year 2010, according to a statement released by Christie's transition office.