Christie, Senate President Sweeney have forged a functional, if at times mercurial, arrangement: One week they’re allies, the next week they’re taking shots
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Senate President Stephen Sweeney, right, laughs with Gov. Chris Christie in this file photo. TRENTON — It is New Jersey’s odd couple.
One is a straight-talking former federal prosecutor who rose to the governor’s office and national stardom in the Republican Party by vilifying his political opponents. The other is an iron worker-turned-Senate Democratic leader who prefers consensus over turmoil.
But Gov. Chris Christie and State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Goucester) have forged a functional — if at times mercurial — arrangement: One week they’re political allies, the next week they’re taking shots.
Recently their relationship, whose cordiality has at times raised Democratic eyebrows, hit a rough patch.
"They find common ground on the financial problems the state faces, but they differ on how to implement the necessary changes, and that’s where we see fireworks," said Ben Dworkin, a political science professor at Rider University.
Less than a week after Sweeney spent an afternoon chiding Christie for playing politics with property tax relief, the governor’s office sent out a press release via e-mail hemorrhaging sarcasm and schooling the Legislature’s top Democrat on the proper use of the word "done."
In the unusual release issued Wednesday, which looked more like a campaign flier than a message from the governor, Christie’s office poked fun at Sweeney for saying publicly that pension and health benefits needed to be changed swiftly. And it emphasized the number of times Sweeney used the word "done."
Noting that the word "done" means "completed" or "finished," the e-mail message went on to say that in Trenton the same word means "to avoid action."
"It’s all theatrics," Sweeney said. "It’s all to divert attention from that under his leadership, taxes have gone up."
While barbed exchanges between the pair are nothing new, this latest one comes during a crucial time as they try to work out the details of a controversial pension and health benefits package in private.
Still, the two burly brawlers say the public should not read too much into the bickering.
"The negotiations are productive," a Christie spokesman, Kevin Roberts, said. "We just wanted to set the record straight and remind the public just how critical these reforms are."
Sweeney said that he and the governor were working toward the same goal, even though he criticized the town hall meetings where Christie often lambastes the Legislature as being set up like "WWF matches."
There’s no question that Christie has ramped up the pressure on Sweeney and other Democrat lawmakers in recent weeks in an effort to change the formula for funding health and pension benefits for state workers — even railing against the "do-nothing" Legislature at a town hall meeting in Jackson on Monday.
"Who’s working and who isn’t?" Christie told the crowd. "They promised you they would do this, but what have they been doing? At some point people have to be held responsible."
On Thursday, Christie’s office issued a pithy press release reminding the Legislature that it had only 70 days to act on what the governor calls his "took kit," a package of bills intended to curtail local government costs.
Christie’s spokesman said the governor needs to make the push now because lawmakers have until the end of June to enact the measures. "You can’t ignore the element of time," Roberts said.
For now, Christie using the campaign-style tactics helps accomplish two goals: ignite a fire under Democratic lawmakers to pass his favored policies through his use of the bully pulpit or, if that fails, set in place a narrative that will resonate in the coming elections, when all of the state’s 120 seats are up for grabs.
Of course, Sweeney can play the blame game as well.
In a press briefing last week, he said lawmakers had passed the most crucial pieces of Christie’s so-called "tool kit" — caps on spending and arbitration awards. The remaining measures, Sweeney said, have either been vetoed by Christie or were redundant and ineffective.
"Listen, the governor is trying to deflect from what he’s doing to the budget," said Sweeney. "He’s said we’ll own the property taxes. Well, guess what, Governor? You own them. Because this is garbage. We passed the real stuff."