Kevin Riordan: Christie wastes needed money on special Senate race

Gov. Christie's speed-of-light special election scheme to fill the late Frank Lautenberg's U.S. Senate seat is shrewd, yet clueless.

The special primary is set for Aug. 13, when most voters are engaged in, say, sunbathing, and the special general is scheduled for Oct. 16. That's a Wednesday, the time of the week when going to the polls is common in South Korea and the Netherlands.

The elections that few New Jersey voters are likely to know or care about will each cost $12 million. This in a state where the same governor, facing a budget gap, brazenly raids affordable-housing trust funds that belong to municipalities.

As if the impending waste of money wasn't bad enough, the scheme's defiantly proud author ("I don't care" about the cost, Christie cheekily admits) also insists he's doing this for our own good.

Given the possibility of Democratic legal challenges to an unexpired term appointment, a primary was a $12-million inevitability. But the governor could have directed a special election be concurrent with the general election in November, saving $12 milion.

The governor's eat-your-spinach civics lesson suggests that New Jersey citizens desperately deserve a directly elected senator, not one appointed by some mere (even if duly elected) governor or another. And we need this senator immediately, whether we like it or not.

In the interim, Christie selected now-former Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa, a conservative Republican and longtime ally who professes to have no aspirations to actually run for office. In other words, he's perfect.

So why not keep Chiesa around long enough to finish Lautenberg's term - or at least until the already scheduled general election Nov. 5?

What's the rush to spend money we don't have? It's not as if Chiesa's credentials will crumble under anything longer than a Senate cameo. And wouldn't a Republican governor enjoy having another Republican vote in the Senate?

Turns out Christie is something of a strict constructionist. He cites a heretofore-obscure discussion among framers of New Jersey's 1947 constitution - something about the separation of federal and state elections.

The governor's understanding of the original intent among conventioneers who convened 66 years ago is surely more profound than mine. He's a lawyer, after all.

But even a lawyer - or a lawyer who isn't Chris Christie - might find it tough to ascertain how those New Jersey framers would calibrate the timing of state and federal elections in the current political climate.

We have a sitting governor on November's ballot who desires a resounding, if not deafening, vote of confidence for a second term in advance of a presidential contest for which he's already in training. What to do?

Given his love of history, the governor surely knows that New Jersey hasn't sent a Republican to the Senate since Bruce released Nebraska.

So perhaps Christie can tell himself that diminishing the GOP's already-slim chances doesn't really matter.

That dog-day Republican primary likely will assist his onetime rival, the perennially entertaining Steve Lonegan. On the other side of the ballot, the Cory Booker pageant will boost Christie by distracting voters from Barbara Buono's honorable, but unexciting, candidacy.

The Democratic Senate hopeful who's still standing on Labor Day - Booker, polls suggest - likely will enjoy as well-publicized a win on Wednesday, Oct. 16, as Christie seems poised to savor against Buono a few weeks later.

So after underwriting the governor's town hall/road show/perpetual campaign for the last three-plus years, New Jersey voters are being told it's in their best interest to pony up now for an election that could be held later, and for a lot less money.

Speaking at a rally/love-in Saturday in Burlington County, Booker said, "I know Willingboro could have used some of that" money.

So could a lot of other places in New Jersey.

Editors Note: This column was updated to reflect that the cost to taxpayers for a special election is $12 million, given the inevitability that a primary would be needed.