Governor asks legislators to 'stop the food fight already.' Watch video
N.J. Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, left, today engaged Speaker Sheila Oliver, right, in a heated argument over DeCroce's comments on unemployment benefits.TRENTON — Stepping into the unusual role of referee, Gov. Chris Christie chided top members of the Legislature Thursday for acting like "kids in a cafeteria" during the recent partisan spat over comments Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce made about the unemployed.
"Can we please just stop the food fight already?" Christie said during a Statehouse press conference. "This is really kind of beneath the offices that everybody holds here, to have this name calling and bickering back and forth."
At the center of the controversy is DeCroce (R-Morris), who on Tuesday told a group of business leaders that unemployment benefits should be reduced to encourage people to look for work. "I’m one of the few people here ... who feel that benefits are too good for these people," he said.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) immediately shot back, demanding DeCroce apologize. Speaker Shelia Oliver (D-Essex) joined the call for an apology but took it a step further, demanding DeCroce explain what he meant by "these people."
DeCroce apologized for not making his comments clearer and said he was referring to people who are "gaming the system."
But that wasn’t the end of it.
DeCroce accused Oliver, who is African American, of "playing the race card."
Asked about the disagreement Thursday, Christie noted DeCroce’s apology.
"I didn’t like the comments that Alex made," the governor said. "They were wrong. He admitted they were wrong."
But Christie, who has gained national headlines with his aggressive YouTube moments and blunt commentary, said that in this case, everyone involved was at fault for "picking on each other."
"(They’re) bickering like they’re kids in the cafeteria, so let’s stop already," he said. "Everybody is trying everyday to get a political angle. Do the right thing and stop grandstanding. And that’s for everyone, on both sides of the angle."
Christie’s comments prompted an unusual response: agreement from the Assembly speaker.
"There are many times that I don’t agree with the governor, but in this case, he’s right — Assembly Minority Leader DeCroce’s comments were certainly ill-advised and unnecessary," Oliver said in a statement. "I have gone on record innumerable times calling for a higher level of discourse and debate in the Statehouse and based on what has been reported to me as the governor’s views on this matter, I am hopeful that everyone will adopt that ideology."
Oliver didn’t address Christie’s suggestion that she was equally at fault.
Derek Roseman, a spokesman for Sweeney, wasn’t as agreeable.
"While the Senate President was pleased to hear the governor disassociate himself from Alex DeCroce’s comments, he disagrees entirely that this is a ‘food fight,’" Roseman said. "The Senate president has received e-mails from unemployed folks around the state outraged at Mr. DeCroce and his belittlement of their plight. For these families, this is a matter of getting a job that will put food on the table, where Mr. DeCroce is telling them to just eat cake."
As for DeCroce’s original statement about reducing unemployment benefits be reduced, Christie said he will reserve judgment until a task force reports its findings next year.
The maximum weekly unemployment benefit in New Jersey is $600 but Christie proposed reducing that to $550 and not allowing those fired for misconduct onto the unemployment rolls.
The statewide unemployment rate is 9.2 percent. The rate is 6.9 percent in DeCroce’s hometown of Parsippany-Troy Hills and 13.3 percent in East Orange, Oliver’s hometown.
David Redlawsk, a Rutgers University political science professor and director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling, said DeCroce’s "inartful" articulation of his position may hurt his attempts to change the unemployment benefits.
"There are certainly some who take advantage of the system, but they are most likely a tiny minority," Redlawsk said. "This is an issue that matters a lot to those who are unemployed, so it is clearly more than a minor food fight at least for those folks."
By Ginger Gibson and Chris Megerian/Statehouse Bureau