Christie's dilemma: Placeholder or longterm solution to Lautenberg seat?
After the death of Sen. Frank Lautenberg (left), Gov. Chris Christie (right) will appoint a temporary fill-in for a U.S. Senate seat. (File Photos)
Gov. Chris Christie faces a dilemma that only Thomas Kean Sr. and Jon Corzine have faced in New Jersey since 1982: appointing a temporary fill-in for a U.S. Senate seat.
And the question is: Should he go the Kean route and appoint a placeholder until the next regularly scheduled Senate election (there's actually some legal confusion about whether an election would be held in Nov. 2013 or in Nov. 2014) or should Christie opt for the Corzine strategy and appoint a strong candidate that can run as a favorite on the same ticket as him in November?Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray said Kean and Corzine were reacting to their own political environments.
- Kean chose a placeholder in 1982 — novice politician Nicholas Brady — because he had barely been in office three months after winning a tight election, Murray said. Brady was the last Republican to represent New Jersey in the Senate. The man who was elected to Brady's short-lived seat? A man named Lautenberg.
- Corzine appointed Robert Menendez under a much more comfortable political climate, Murray said. Menendez, still in the Senate, obviously then went on to win re-election.
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