TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie has feuded with teachers. He has been flirted with. And he has ordered that constituents be escorted away by state troopers. All of this has taken place in front of thousands of residents and millions of YouTube viewers. The governor’s town hall meetings — usually held at least once a week — have catapulted...
TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie has feuded with teachers. He has been flirted with. And he has ordered that constituents be escorted away by state troopers. All of this has taken place in front of thousands of residents and millions of YouTube viewers.
The governor’s town hall meetings — usually held at least once a week — have catapulted him into the national spotlight and put him into the conversation as a possible Republican presidential candidate. But closer to home, a Democratic Assemblyman is calling on Christie to reimburse taxpayers for what he says is political campaigning on their dime.
"These are taxpayer-funded events organized and promoted by the taxpayer-funded governor’s office," said Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D-Gloucester). "If the governor sticks to public policy, that’s fine. But if the governor wants to campaign, he must dip into his own wallet."
'RIDICULOUS' CLAIMS
At town hall meetings the governor, accompanied by a videographer whose work is often posted on the internet, says he won’t be able to change state government unless a Republican Legislature is elected in November, an assertion that isn’t part of his prepared remarks and typically comes up during the question-and-answer portion.
Christie dismissed Moriarty’s claim at a press conference today, calling it "ridiculous."
A spokesman for the governor said Christie focuses on public policy and not political rhetoric at the meetings, and is often questioned by audience members about why his suggested changes are taking so long to be enacted.
"The governor merely observes the reality of a Democratically controlled Legislature, its ambivalence, even outright hostility toward reform efforts," said the spokesman, Michael Drewniak. "We can’t separate those realities and that history from a frank and honest discussion about the urgent need to fix New Jersey’s fiscal problems."
Republican legislators also criticized Moriarty today, saying taxpayers should be able to have access to the governor and ask him questions.
"If the Democrats’ position is that a legislator or governor cannot express a strong opinion on how to change the status quo, elected officials would be muzzled unless they reached into their pockets in order to speak," said Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Union).
But a spokesman for Moriarty says Christie is in violation the states’ ethics code for executive branch employees that says "no employee in the career or senior executive service shall directly or indirectly use or seek to use his or her position to control or affect the political action of another person or engage in political activity during working hours."
Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) agreed, saying "If Chris Christie was still U.S. attorney, he’d be prosecuting himself right now.
"He’s engaging in a broad campaign using public money to promote a partisan agenda. This is the kind of stuff that he would rail about," said Wisniewski, who also is the state Democratic chairman.
One political expert said the governor is simply using town halls to try to sell his agenda.
"At a town hall he is talking about the substance of his policy," said Stuart Koch, a political science professor at The College of New Jersey. "I think that’s a legitimate thing for him to be doing on the taxpayer dollar."
Ginger Gibson contributed to this report.