Christopher Christie

Republicans have hired Benjamin Ginsberg, one of the nation's top election law experts, as national counsel for legislative and congressional redistricting in 2011.  Ginsberg served as counsel to the Bush/Cheney campaigns in 2000 and 2004, and has worked for the Republican National Committee.  His appointment was announced jointly by GOP State Chairman Jay Webber, Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield), and Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany).

As State Chairman, Webber will name all five Republicans on the legislative redistricting commission - presumably in consultant with Kean, DeCroce and Gov.-elect Christopher Christie.  For the congressional redistricting commission, Webber, Kean and DeCroce each get two appointments.

The Ginsberg appointment marks an unusually early start for Republicans on redistricting.  Democrats started their redistricting process back in 1999, more than a year before the GOP.

Just in case you're interested: Republican Christopher Christie won New Jersey's third congressional district by 35,947 votes over Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, 116,911 to 80,964.  Last year, Democrat John Adler won the third district House seat by 13,268 votes, 52%-48%, the first Democrat  to carry the seat since 1884.

Everybody needs to start a new job with a list of priorities and Chris Christie is no exception. There might be a thousand things that need to get done but a limited number that can be achieved. He needs to get up every morning, read the list, and raise hell until the list is complete. When it's done, write a new list.

Here's a start:

Several Democrats have asked Gov. Jon Corzine to consider asking New Jersey Supreme Court Justices John Wallace and Virginia Long to retire early so that the outgoing governor could fill their seats before he leaves office, according to sources close to the governor.  There was a discussion about this with the front office staff, but Corzine has declined to consider appointing new Justices during the next two months.

HAMILTON -- Governor-elect Christopher Christie continued his post-election education theme today, appearing in front of hundreds of students at Steinert High School in Hamilton Township this afternoon. 

The suburban environment surrounding the school, which counts Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito as an alumn along with two legislators who attended the assembly - state Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Hamilton) and Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton) - provided a striking contrast to Christie's campaign stop on his first full day as Governor Elect, at the Robert Treat Academy in Newark. 

After praising the school's academic record, Christie told the students that kids in New Jersey's cities deserve the same quality.

"Those people, because of where they're born and where they live, are not getting the same education," he said. "Those kids in Trenton, Camden, Newark, Jersey City, Asbury Park - those kids deserve the same kind of education you all get in Hamilton -- at Steinert."

About half of the students gave Christie a standing ovation when he was introduced. 

Most of the assembly was taken up by a question and answer session, with students  asking Christie questions they wrote out on note cards.

Christopher Christie's 100,000 vote margin in the race for governor is the second biggest win for a Republican challenger against a Democratic incumbent in New Jersey history.  Christie topped Albert Hawkes, who unseated incumbent William Smathers in the 1942 U.S. Senate race.  The record still belongs to Hamilton Kean, who ousted Democratic U.S. Sen. Edward Edwards by 233,000 votes in 1928.

Overall, Christie ranks third on the all-time list of highest pluralities for a challenger against an incumbent. The record for the biggest plurality for a Democratic challenger against a Republican incumbent belongs to A. Harry Moore, who ousted Kean by 230,000 votes when he ran for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 1934.

Now that  the dust has finally settled after the grueling campaign for governor, there are a number of lessons that we can draw from this election.

First and foremost, this was a "pocketbook" election. The No. 1 issue on the minds of voters was the state of the economy, followed closely by concern over skyrocketing property taxes. Indeed, nearly 90 percent of those polled indicated that they were concerned with the condition of the national economy.

Whether it was fair or not, Governor Corzine's fate was ultimately tied to the recession, which has placed a tremendous strain on state resources and has severely reduced state revenues. This combination has placed New Jersey in a critical fiscal condition.

The NJ gubernatorial election result demonstrates that Governor-elect Chris Christie resurrected the center-right voter coalition of Republicans, Independents, and conservative and moderate Democrats that has always produced Republican victories.  Even Christie Whitman failed to do this in both her elections for Governor.

Christie was able to hold social conservatives on the right, but appeal on economic grounds to moderates and independents, to forge the largest electoral majority for a state Republican since Tom Kean in 1985.

Indeed the new Christie Majority cuts across both parties, and all regions of the state.  While several GOP-leaning counties produced eye-popping numbers (Ocean and Monmouth), Christie's win was not a regional one.  It was a state-wide phenomenon.  The new Governor won Middlesex and Gloucester counties, and came closer than expected in places like Union county.

Attorney General Anne Milgram had already decided she would leave her post when Gov. Jon Corzine lost his bid for re-election.  She has been seeking jobs in Washington, D.C., where she lived when she worked on Corzine's U.S. Senate staff.  Her spokesman, David Wald, told PolitickerNJ.com yesterday denied reports that Milgram was headed to the U.S. Department of Justice to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 

It will be interesting to see what the new Republican governor does with Wald, who was dominate political reporter in the state from 1978 to 2000, when he left the Star-Ledger to join Corzine's campaign staff when he ran for the Senate.  Wald worked in Corzine's Senate office before taking the Attorney General's communications director after Corzine named Zulima Farber to the post after the 2005 election.

Gov.-elect Christopher Christie will also have to decide what to do with other former reporters who wound up getting jobs with Democratic governors in recent years.  Deborah Howlett, who was covering Corzine for the Star-Ledger when he hired her as Communications Director, is sure to be a goner.  Corzine demoted Howlett a few months ago, although she remains on the front office payroll.

Gov.-elect Christopher Christie told the Star-Ledger that he would not rule out appointments for Ralph Marra and Michele Brown, two of his top colleagues at the U.S. Attorney's office. 

"People who have real problems won't be in the administration. People who have problems that are contrived for attempted political advantage won't be hurt by that.  That doesn't necessary mean they're going to be in, but if they're not in, that won't be the reason why they're not," Christie told the Star-Ledger's Claire Heininger. 

Christie could also be talking about former Morris County Freeholder John Inglesino, who stepped out of the spotlight after he became a campaign issue during the primary election.

Marra has been mentioned, although not by Christie or any of his top advisors, as a possible candidate for Attorney General.  Brown had been viewed as a likely candidate for a top administration post until Democrats made her into a campaign issue.