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Thursday, November 5, 2009
Now Christie has to get specific
Republican Governor-elect Chris Christie greets supporters on election night at his headquarters in Parsippany, N.J. (AP Photo/Christopher Barth)

 

Now the bad news for Chris Christie: He must actually try to govern New Jersey.
 
Congratulations to Christie, a Republican and former federal prosecutor who scored an impressive victory on Election Day over Democratic Gov. Corzine. Even with third-party candidate Chris Daggett in the race, the outcome really wasn’t close.
 
Christie was outspent by the wealthy incumbent in a heavily Democratic state. But he persuaded voters that he’ll do a better job making New Jersey more affordable and prosperous.
 
Exactly how he plans to do that, Christie was not willing to share with voters during the campaign. He promised to cut spending (something that Corzine actually did). But it won’t be enough to balance a budget with a projected shortfall of at least $8 billion.
 
Restoring property-tax rebates? Perhaps a fraction in his first year, Christie said, when he figures out how much the state can afford.
 
Income-tax cuts? Only for the wealthiest New Jerseyans in his first year, Christie said. He wants to allow a Corzine tax increase to expire, dropping the top rate from 10.75 percent to 8.9 percent on households earning more than $1 million. To make up for that lost revenue, he plans to cut the budget deeper. Voters can’t say they weren’t warned.
 
If Christie is to have better success than Corzine in managing the state’s troubled finances, he’ll need some luck in the form of an improved national economy. More robust tax collections would help him balance the budget without imposing drastic cuts in services. But at this point in a slow recovery, such good fortune doesn’t appear likely.
 
Like Corzine, Christie plans to save money by shortchanging contributions to public-employee pension funds. It’s merely deferring a growing liability, but Christie might have better luck than Corzine in curbing the costly benefits of unionized state employees.
 
Corzine lost his reelection bid despite significant help from President Obama and Vice President Biden. Some voters in New Jersey and elsewhere did intend to send a message to Obama, but most said in exit polling that the election was not a referendum on the president. Their concerns were more local — high taxes, corruption, and an unemployment rate in New Jersey slightly higher than surrounding states’.
 
The off-year election results were not a national referendum, but the Republican Party had some successes it can tout. In Virginia, the only other state electing a governor, Republican Robert McDonnell triumphed. Independent voters in New Jersey and Virginia supported the GOP this time.
 
But Democrats won congressional races in northern California and in an upstate New York district that was represented by Republicans for a century.
 
The New York contest pointed to a continuing challenge for the GOP. The moderate Republican candidate gave way in the final days to a conservative opponent endorsed by Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh, resulting in a Democrat winning the seat.
 
The GOP is still grappling with whether it wants “pure” conservatives or a big tent, and the rift is as prominent as ever. Christie won by embracing all comers.
Posted by Inquirer Editorial Board @ 4:00 AM  Permalink | 2 comments
Comments   
Posted 08:19 AM, 11/05/2009
fafafooey
He hasn't even taken office yet, and the Sore-Loserman partisan Democrat Inquirer editorial board starts its attacks.... Another reason I will never pay one dime for this Democrat party mouthpiece.
Posted 11:46 AM, 11/05/2009
janann
FarOutPhoney - How long did you give Obama to change the mess he inerited. None of us are sore losers,,,, just wondering what it is ChristieII will actually do. O boy, how about that mean picture, it makes him look fat.... shame on that liberal press.
2 comments
About The Inquirer Editorial Board
Harold Jackson, a winner of the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing, grew up in Birmingham, Ala., during the civil rights movement. He graduated from Baker University in Baldwin, Kan., in 1975, with a degree in journalism/political science. He has also worked at the Birmingham Post-Herald, United Press International, the Birmingham News, and the Baltimore Sun. He was at The Inquirer in the mid-1980s, returned in 1999, and became editorial page editor in 2007.

Paul Davies is the deputy editor of the Editorial Page. His newspaper career has spanned more than 20 years and includes stints at The Wall Street Journal and the Philadelphia Daily News. He graduated from the University of Delaware and received a masters in journalism from Columbia University, where he was also a Knight-Bagehot Fellow. He was born in Philadelphia and still lives in the city.

Tony Auth began drawing while bedridden for a year and a half at the age of five. He graduated from UCLA in 1965 and worked for six years as a medical illustrator while doing three cartoons a week for various college newspapers. Tony has been happily ensconced as The Inquirer’s editorial cartoonist since 1971. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1976, and has won numerous other awards, including five Overseas Press Club Awards, the Sigma Delta Chi award for distinguished service in Journalism, and the Herblock and Thomas Nast Prizes. Tony is married to Eliza Drake Auth, a painter of realistic landscapes and portraits.

Trudy Rubin is the foreign affairs columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and a member of The Inquirer’s editorial board. Her column appears twice weekly in The Inquirer and runs regularly in many other newspapers around the United States. She is the author of Willful Blindness: The Bush Administration and Iraq.

Kevin Ferris is an assistant editor on the Editorial Board who oversees the Sunday Currents section and writes a weekly column on a wide range of issues. In his 15 years on the board, he’s handled letters to the editor and the Community Voices pages and has been Commentary Page editor. He started with The Inquirer in 1986, and his assignments have ranged from the copy and news desks to the Chester County bureau and the national/foreign desk.

As an editorial writer for The Inquirer for the past two decades, Russell Cooke has written on a wide range of topics covering government, legal, civic and social issues. Before joining the Editorial Board, he was a reporter in the Inquirer’s City Hall bureau.

Editorial writer Dave Boyer joined The Inquirer in 2002. He writes about politics, government, the economy, sports and many other subjects, but draws the line at writing about "Jon & Kate Plus Eight." He has won journalism awards and insists bribery was not involved. A native of Allentown, Boyer graduated from Penn State. He and his wife reside in Center City, where they enjoy strolling and paying the wage tax.

Melanie Burney joined the editorial board in January 2008 after covering education at the Inquirer for eight years. She previously worked at the Associated Press in Philadelphia and southern New Jersey. She is a graduate of Glassboro State College, now Rowan University, and a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Josh Gohlke has been The Inquirer’s op-ed editor since last year, editing the daily commentary page and writing occasional editorials. He came to the Inquirer after eight years at The Record of Bergen County, N.J., first as a reporter covering local and state politics and government and ultimately as the deputy editorial page editor. He also worked as a reporter for several smaller papers in New Jersey and California. Josh was born and raised in Los Angeles and graduated from Stanford University. He lives in Philadelphia.

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