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Lt. Gov. Guadagno wants to replace Christie 'to do better' in N.J.

New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno greets people outside La Playa Restaurant in Keansburg after announcing she was running for governor.
New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno greets people outside La Playa Restaurant in Keansburg after announcing she was running for governor.Read moreJESSICA GRIFFIN / Staff Photographer

KEANSBURG, N.J. — For seven years, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno has traveled New Jersey cutting ribbons at ground-breaking ceremonies, addressing various chambers of commerce, and generally doing the grunt work of government that doesn't generate headlines.

"Without fanfare, without cameras, without press availability, I did my job," she said of her tenure thus far as the state's first lieutenant governor.

On Tuesday, perhaps for the first time, the cameras were focused squarely on Guadagno, 57, as she launched her campaign for governor.

Introducing herself to voters in a state whose politics has been singularly defined by Gov. Christie since 2010, Guadagno declared herself a champion of the working class and stalwart against a bloated government she says can't afford to be the "Palace of Versailles."

Guadagno, a former federal prosecutor and Monmouth County sheriff, sought to draw a contrast with her deeply unpopular boss, even as she took credit for the state's economic recovery. She did not mention Christie's name — a fact that is at once unsurprising (the governor's approval rating is 18 percent) and remarkable (he put her on the political map).

Her opponents won't make that balancing act easy.

"If New Jersey Republicans nominate the second-in-command to a governor marked by failed policies, scandal, and record low approval ratings, what message are we sending to the citizens of our state?" said Jack Ciattarelli, a Somerset County assemblyman who is seeking the GOP nomination.

He described Guadagno as "loyal to a fault" and argued that she was "exactly" whom Democrats want to run against in November's general election. "Republicans need a new message and a new messenger," Ciattarelli said in a statement.

Guadagno, who officially filed paperwork to run for governor last week, chafed at the notion that she has simply been a prop at Christie's side.

"For those of you that think I have been silent for the last seven years, you simply haven't been listening," she said.

Guadagno did not take questions from reporters Tuesday.

As of Nov. 30, there were about 860,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in New Jersey, though a plurality of voters were unaffiliated with either party.

Democrats seeking their party's nomination include Phil Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive and ambassador to Germany; Assemblyman John S. Wisniewski of Middlesex County; and State Sen. Raymond J. Lesniak of Union County.

In her 20-minute speech, Guadagno seemed to try to heed lessons from the 2016 presidential campaign, saying she'd spent her seven years as Christie's No. 2 "connecting with the working families of this state and extolling "blue-collar values."

The location of her campaign launch, La Playa restaurant in this Monmouth County Shore town, seemed to underscore that theme. Guadagno was introduced by Leo Cervantes, the restaurant's owner. A Mexican immigrant, Cervantes said Guadagno had helped him secure a loan after his first restaurant was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy.

"You want your governor to be committed to making New Jersey a place for families, who strives to be better, who answers the phone, who is there in a crisis, who walks in your shoes, who cares fearlessly and without exception about you, and only you," Guadagno told supporters.

"I want to be governor because I know we can do better in so many ways," she said.

Born in Waterloo, Iowa, Guadagno said her family, which included four siblings, moved 12 times in 20 years while she grew up. At 14, she said, she learned her father, a salesman, had lost his job.

She learned that "when you can't pay your bills you don't keep spending money," she said.

New Jersey is heading down that path, she suggested, citing its high tax burden, pension debt, and worst-in-the-nation foreclosure rate.

Given the state's financial problems, Guadagno said, "we simply do not have the money to turn the Statehouse into the Palace of Versailles."

That was an apparent reference to Christie's $300 million plan to renovate the Statehouse, which he says is rife with safety code violations and fire hazards. Windows are "literally falling out," he said in November.

She also denounced Christie's plan for a light rail line in Bergen and Hudson Counties, saying the state "can't afford to borrow billions for a new rail line when roads and bridges are crumbling."

"We need to cut out those luxury items" and "stick to the basics," she said.

Among the state's most pressing issues, Guadagno said, are reducing property taxes and fixing the school-funding formula to make distribution of aid more equitable.

Guadagno and her husband, Mike, an appellate court judge, live in Monmouth County. They have three sons.