Before Hoboken meeting, Christie's office sent an e-mail trying to prevent school board members from attending
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Gov. Chris Christie holds a town hall meeting before a capacity crowd at the Roxbury Township Municipal Complex in Morris County to discuss his property tax plan and affordable housing. TRENTON — As he promotes his plan for property tax reform in town hall meetings, Gov. Chris Christie has stressed his willingness to engage in debate.
"These aren’t staged, as you can see, and the questions aren’t pre-selected, as you can see," he told one audience. "This governor’s not afraid to answer any question about what we’re doing as a government on your behalf."
But planning documents obtained by The Star-Ledger and interviews with participants show subtle efforts to build a friendly audience.
Before the first meeting in Hoboken on May 17, Christie’s office tried to prevent school board members from attending, telling a local official in an e-mail: "We would prefer that they not be invited. This is about taxes, not education. Thanks, sorry for the heartburn."
In Rutherford, the Republican governor did get tough questions about education from a teacher and another woman who challenged him. The crowd roared as Christie argued back, leaving the dissidents shaken.
While critics were allowed into the event without an invitation, they were lonely: A briefing prepared by Christie’s office said "all attendees have RSVP’d through our office or through the mayor," The mayor is Republican John Hipp.
"When I was listening to the ridiculous applause of the people at every single thing that he said, I was shaking my head, and I was looking for somebody else who might be shaking their head," Christine Beidel, the second woman who disagreed with the governor, said in an interview. "I thought it was my moral imperative to say another point of view."
The governor’s office sent dozens of invitations to attendees in Hoboken and Rutherford, according to documents obtained by The Star-Ledger late last week under the Open Public Records Act. No documents were provided for a town hall event at a Linden senior center, where most attendees were residents of the complex, or for a meeting in Roxbury Township held Thursday.
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Invitations for a town hall session in Robbinsville were handled by local officials, who consulted with Christie’s office about potential for some in the crowd being "negative," the documents show.
Responses from those invited by the governor’s office were mostly positive, with attendees expressing their support for Christie or offering to bring "friendly bodies," according to the documents. Others were not so generous. One wrote back, "I no longer wish to be part of the Christie team," while another replied: "Phooey. He’s even worse than FLORIO," referring to former Democratic governor Jim Florio.
‘OPEN MEETINGS’
Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said local officials hosting the town halls do the bulk of invitations, and it’s "really not a great surprise" that "they choose an audience that is of their liking."
"They are open meetings. There’s always a seat for anybody who walks in," Drewniak said. "The governor has taken questions from all manner of people who are in favor of his policies, and who oppose some of his policies. ... But what you truly can’t have is an audience that is stacked with hostility to the point that there can’t be an open discussion."
Drewniak said the Hoboken school board members were ultimately allowed to attend, and the initial exclusion was because "it was not an education event. We were trying to be narrow in highlighting certain reform issues."
Christie’s events are not as controlled as those held by former President George W. Bush, whose carefully staged "conversations on Social Security" drew a raft of criticism, or former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whose staff admitted to planting questions at town halls.
Indeed, Christie’s frank back-and-forth with the teacher in Rutherford became a sensation on YouTube. But that was an exception, in contrast to the freewheeling town halls held last summer by members of Congress to discuss health care reform.
They are also a far cry from town halls hosted by former Gov. Jon Corzine on his doomed plan to cut state debt through increased tolls. Opposition that built during those events — which, unlike Christie’s, were publicly announced a week in advance and sometimes held at night — forced Corzine to cut short his planned tour of every county in the state.
Brigid Harrison, a political scientist at Montclair State University, said Corzine’s willingness to take a beating from the audience was in some ways "admirable," but also politically "naive, because you can’t control what people are going to say, and then the takeaway point becomes somebody hijacking your agenda."
"The moniker ‘town hall’ denotes a more open forum than what is actually occurring," Harrison said. "There’s nothing wrong with what (Christie) is doing, but I think it’s perhaps misleading."
NO EXCLUSIONS
Mary Caffrey, a consultant who helped organize the event in Robbinsville using the town’s registered e-mail list, said her instruction from the governor’s office was to find "real Robbinsville people." She said an e-mail she wrote to Christie’s staff warning them some attendees might be "negative" was so they could "be prepared."
"There was absolutely no discussion of excluding anyone," Caffrey said.
Wilfred Wright, a Ewing resident, attended that meeting after learning of it from his daughter, who lives in Robbinsville. He asked the governor a question about eliminating layers of government and said he supports Christie’s Cap 2.5 proposal.
"Nobody knew who I was," Wright said. "I think it was a fair give-and-take. I don’t think the deck was stacked."
Charles Nagy disagreed. He said he attended the meeting in Roxbury Township after "a friend of mine who’s a Republican sent me an e-mail with an invitation from the governor’s office."
Nagy jostled with one of Christie’s staffers for several minutes while the governor took questions from people who declared themselves big fans. As Christie — over his time limit — began to wrap up, Nagy yelled: "Would you take one from a Democrat?"
The governor obliged, and Nagy said he "saw him come alive" as they traded rapid-fire questions and answers on state spending. Still, Nagy felt the crowd and resulting discussion was slanted in Christie’s favor.
"That’s nice they have their own cozy rally," Nagy said. "I think it would be much better for him if he had a debate going on."