Christie says he’s playing with ‘house money’

Gov. Christie said he hadn't been given much of a chance during New Jersey's gubernatorial election. He was running in a heavily blue state against a wealthy incumbent Democrat.

So when he won against the odds, Christie said he made up his mind to do what he thought had to be done to get the state's fiscal house in order - even it meant he'd be a one-term governor, and even if it meant going up against powerful unions and a Democratically-controlled legislature.

"I'm a Republican in New Jersey and I'm playing with house money," he said Tuesday in Philadelphia during a speech before the Committee of Seventy, a non-partisan, nonprofit agency that fights for better local government. "What that frees me up to do is not be a panderer . . . not curry favor with each interest group."

Playing with the house money, Christie said, means feeling free to do what's best for the state as a whole.

"Neither party in recent history has a track record that says they will put aside the pandering," the governor said, and now both must step up to make the tough decisions.

"The difference now is that people are watching," he said, adding of Republicans, "If we don't do what we said we would do, we will be sent to the wilderness for a very long time."

Christie, who has been spoken of as a possible future presidential candidate, was warmly received at the Committee of Seventy's annual breakfast at the Hyatt at the Bellevue in Center City.

The event was attended by about 600 people, including U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, U.S. Rep.-elect Patrick Meehan and Mayor Nutter.