WILLIAMSPORT, Pennsylvania — Gov. Chris Christie, campaigning in Pennsylvania today for Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett, regaled a small audience with tales of balancing budgets and battles with a Democrat-controlled Legislature. Democrats, Christie said, “rubbed their hands in glee” at the prospect of him having to raise taxes after he came into office in January and discovered a $2.2...
Gov. Chris Christie, right, takes a minute to autograph a handwritten sign held by Rhandie Jessell, 6, of Williamsport, Pa. at a rally for Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett.WILLIAMSPORT, Pennsylvania — Gov. Chris Christie, campaigning in Pennsylvania today for Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett, regaled a small audience with tales of balancing budgets and battles with a Democrat-controlled Legislature.
Democrats, Christie said, “rubbed their hands in glee” at the prospect of him having to raise taxes after he came into office in January and discovered a $2.2 billion budget deficit for the last fiscal year. Instead, Christie said he “impounded” the money and dared the Democrats to fix it another way.”
“I just signed an executive order and fixed it by myself,” he said.
“The Democrats on the floor of the Legislature, they were busy. They didn’t know what to do,” said Christie. “They started calling me all kinds of names — Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte — all those great leaders of the past.”
Christie has spent the last month touring the country for Republican candidates for governor and Congress. Today brought him to this small city in north-central Pennsylvania, most famous for hosting the Little League World Series. He arrived about an hour and a half late, his flight delayed by fog.
Corbett, 61, is currently serving as Pennsylvania’s attorney general, an elected position. Like Christie, he is a former U.S. Attorney who although 13 years Christie’s senior, as described the governor as a role model.
Corbett is running against Democrat Dan Onorato, the Allegheny County executive, and has been leading the polls. He stressed his shared prosecutorial background with Christie and said Onorato had said downplayed how well it prepared him to be governor.
“Can you imagine what we could accomplish in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, having two former prosecutors now as governor going after the special interest?” said Corbett.
Previous coverage:
• N.J. Gov. Christie heads to Pennsylvania to campaign for GOP candidate Tom Corbett
• Majority of N.J. voters think Christie should focus on state, instead of cross-country campaign
• N.J. Gov. Christie continues national tour in Wisconsin with GOP candidate Scott Walker
• Gov. Christie makes campaign stop in Ohio, denies presidential aspirations
• Gov. Chris Christie arrives in Ohio as part of GOP campaign tour
• Gov. Christie recants campaign promise of not altering N.J. firefighters' pensions
• Gov. Chris Christie will head to Midwest to campaign for GOP gubernatorial hopefuls