Chris Christie forges ahead as scandal swirls
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie intends to embark on an ambitious public schedule in the coming months aimed at reinforcing a blunt message: the governor is back at work.
Christie’s activities include a series of high-profile events, including the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce’s congressional dinner next month and a range of fundraising events for the Republican Governors Association. The Super Bowl will take place in New Jersey, putting more attention on the governor’s leadership.
Continue Reading(Also on POLITICO: Christie's high-stakes weekend)And Christie has no intention of trimming his sails, policy-wise, in the upcoming legislative session — even if that means wrangling over a budget with legislators who are investigating him.
Republicans said that Christie will raise money for the RGA in Illinois and Texas next month, among other locations.
The events were all scheduled prior to the eruption of the “Bridgegate” scandal last week, which promoted Christie to dismiss multiple aides who were found to have deliberately meddled with traffic patterns near the George Washington Bridge.
Christie was back in public Thursday for an event related to Hurricane Sandy recovery; after keeping a subdued schedule over the last eight days, he will be back in front of the cameras even more dramatically next week when he is inaugurated for a second term.
“Gov. Christie’s going to continue focusing on being the best governor of New Jersey as he can be,” said his senior adviser, Mike DuHaime.
Two sources familiar with Christie’s last 10 days said that the first 48 hours were the most frenzied, as his aides clamored just to keep up with a set of facts that was emerging in real time - emails showing the now-fired Christie aide Bridget Kelly had messaged Port Authority official David Wildstein in August saying it was time for “traffic problems in Fort Lee.”
Since then, things have become more normal, according to sources close to Christie, albeit slightly different, with Kelly gone from the internal government world and longtime Christie adviser Bill Stepien gone from the external circle. The governor addressed his senior staff on Monday, as he always does, one source said.
“No one, I can assure you, ever told me or anybody on my team that it was going to be easy,” Christie said at the Sandy event on Thursday. “It hadn’t been up to this point, and there’s all kinds of challenges as you know that come every day out of nowhere to test you.
“But, I want to assure the people of New Jersey of one thing: I was born here, I was raised here, I’m raising my family here, and this is where I intend to spend the rest of my life. And whatever test they put in front of me, I will meet those tests because I’m doing it on your behalf.”
Republicans have advised the governor to show through his public actions and attitude that he is focused on doing the job he was elected to do — not merely battling multiple ongoing investigations that threaten to further embarrass his administration.
Christie advisers are aware there will be more disclosures, and they know they will have to calibrate accordingly. For now, the motto is “keep your head down and focus on being governor,” said one adviser.
“Detractors are gonna detract and the supporters are gonna support,” said one source close to Christie, adding that they’ve gotten used to some of the negative coverage.
A number of people supporting Christie said they believe he will be delayed in a pivot toward running for president. But advisers insist he wasn’t planning on overtly using 2014 for that anyway.
He made the decision awhile ago not to form a PAC, said one adviser, so he wouldn’t be accused of splitting attention simultaneously between himself and the RGA. He also planned to limit travel to early presidential states for that reason, they added, and he’s sticking to that course.
His inner circle, aside from his wife, Mary Pat, is now DuHaime, adviser Bill Palatucci and communications director Maria Comella. There are other concentric circles, including some senior staffers and political advisers like Russ Schriefer, his ad-maker, and Adam Geller, his pollster. He also takes counsel from Jeff Chiesa, who was Christie’s appointee to the U.S. Senate after Frank Lautenberg died.
His aides take comfort in each new day that passes without new information emerging. But they are bracing for other disclosures, and one source said Christie’s orbit is concerned about what will happen when Kelly is subpeonaed.
“We know there will be more things that come up,” said one Christie insider.
Preparations are underway for Christie’s inauguration on Tuesday, including an event at the iconic Ellis Island.
“Tuesday’s a very big day for him,” said Bergen County GOP Chairman Robert Yudin.
Republicans who work with the Christie operation say that the governor’s machine has not slowed down or shifted focus away from commitments to the state and other allies.
The RGA said there are no plans to trim Christie’s activities on behalf of other Republican governors in the coming months.
“We’re going to continue with an aggressive fundraising schedule because the Democrats are going to throw everything they can at us,” RGA communications director Gail Gitcho said.
Tom Bracken, who heads the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, said Christie’s team has been in “constant contact” with Chamber leaders about his appearance at the group’s annual February gathering.
Bracken said the governor plainly “took it hard” that scandal broke out on the doorstep of his second term.
Now, Bracken added, the focus is back on “support for New Jersey’s business community.”
No comments:
Post a Comment