After several controversial weeks, lieutenant governor has been thrust into the spotlight
Lt. Gov. Kim Guadago waits to testify before the Senate Budget Committee at the Statehouse in Trenton.TRENTON — As Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno walked to the microphone to give the commencement speech last week at William Paterson University, the booing got louder. She smiled.
She asked the 125 students who had risen and turned their backs in protest of funding cuts to face her as she talked about becoming Monmouth County’s first female sheriff. They didn’t.
The heckling was relentless, but as Guadagno finished her speech, she called on the students to stand and applaud for their parents. This time they responded, and she quietly slipped back to her seat with a seemingly positive send-off.
But it had taken a toll on New Jersey’s first lieutenant governor.
"It was really brought home to me at the William Paterson event, people don’t see us as human beings," Guadagno said a few days later in her Trenton office. "It hurt my feelings, quite honestly."
Guadagno, who spent her first year in office in the shadow of Gov. Chris Christie, is getting more attention than ever these days. After only dealing with businesses and heading a commission designed to cut government red tape, her dual role as secretary of state thrust her into the spotlight.
She is battling with the Council on the Arts over contracts and artwork for public buildings. She kicked track-star Carl Lewis off the state Senate ballot, landing in state and federal courts and becoming an object of scorn for Democrats. Last week’s heckling at William Paterson made her the target of unhappiness focused more often at Christie.
Caricatured as a ribbon-cutting stand-in for Christie with no agenda of her own, Guadagno says while she might seem quiet to the public, she plays a role in shaping administration policy. The former prosecutor disputes that she is kept on a short leash by the governor’s office.
"I have a seat at the table," Guadagno said in an interview with The Star-Ledger. "I have complete access. It was his decision, it was both of our decision. I wanted a substantive job when I came to work everyday."
HER IMAGE
State Sen. Steven Oroho (R-Sussex) recalls working with Guadagno on the Red Tape Commission, tasked with ripping up a state regulatory system businesses decried as burdensome. At the press conference to unveil the findings, she spoke but didn’t make the evening news programs.
"Let’s face it, the governor is going to get a lot of face time," Oroho said.
State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor with former Gov. Jon Corzine, said she isn’t surprised by the niche Christie carved for Guadagno.
"You would not have seen a lot of pictures of me just standing at press conferences looking adoringly at Jon Corzine," Weinberg joked. "This is by no means critical, it’s what the governor has shaped for her role."
Guadagno, 52, is comfortable waiting in the wings. She said she has more personal freedom than Christie because she’s not as easily recognized. Thursday night she met her husband, Superior Court Judge Michael Guadagno, in Atlantic City where he attended the state Bar Association convention. Friday night she went to take pictures of her son at his senior prom.
Guadagno has heard people grumble to her about standing silently behind the governor. Her response to them: "What gives you the impression I’m not opening my mouth? If we have a conversation, or we have a debate it should be behind closed doors. It’s the Christie-Guadagno administration, not the Guadagano-Christie administration."
INTO THE SPOTLIGHT
Resting her chin in her hands, Guadagno sat motionless as a lawmaker at a budget hearing earlier this month pressed her for explanations in her flap with the arts council.
Then she launched into motion, her hands waving and her voice getting louder as she leaned closer to the microphone. Words like "fraud" and "ridiculous" started flying from her — the kind of stuff Christie says when he’s laying into a foe. The tension rose as the back and forth with lawmakers escalated.
When Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), the committee chairman, tried to change the subject, Guadagno persisted, insisting that she satisfy every question.
The feud with the Council on the Arts (which she downplays as over-hyped and under control) and the controversy after her decision to kick Lewis from the ballot both bubbled up from her duties as the secretary of state.
But Guadagno sees no distinction between the governor’s position and her own. She understands the William Paterson students were booing her, too. "It’s my policies, too," Guadagno said. "It’s a partnership, we work together."
Environmentalist Jeff Tittel, who has lobbied against some of the Red Tape Commission measures, said Guadagno has become the governor’s "enforcer." He believes the Lewis decision is proof of her carrying out political measures for Christie.
"Early on there were some jokes about her always standing behind the governor, I think that’s as much symbolic as true, she does the governor’s bidding," said Tittel, a former Democratic operative. "Even though she follows the governor’s plans, she has her own. She’s developing her own political base in that process."
BUSINESS RELATIONS
On Thursday, Guadagno walked in 30 minutes late to a tax policy meeting designed as a brainstorming session with conservative think tanks and some of the state’s largest businesses.
It didn’t matter that she missed the introductions and opening remarks. When Josh Barro, a fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, made a comment about the canceled ARC tunnel, she jumped right in, asking: "Can you say that louder so the people behind you can hear?"
Guadagno has spent her first 16 months in office with that crowd, talking about taxes and business regulations.
"She has been a breath of fresh air for the business community, very proactive," said Tom Bracken, president of state Chamber of Commerce. "She’s aggressive, she’s intelligent, she’s well prepared. She’s got a lot of energy."
In giving Guadagno the responsibility of interacting with businesses, Christie has put her in charge of an effort that is one of his biggest talking points. He frequently pegs proof for much of his success in office to job creation numbers.
"She has an incredibly strong relationship with the governor that goes back many years," said Steven Some, a Republican lobbyist who represents some businesses Guadagno interacts with. "She’s a very high level advisor and works very well with everybody in that administration."
Guadagno said her jobs at the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York and New Jersey helped her work with businesses. "You convince a jury, it’s the same kind of skill set that I needed to convince these businesses," she said.
Guadagno said her legal background — which required her to understand "two sides of the story" — even allows her to see the flip side of the students who stood to boo her.
"They were very courageous in doing what they did," she said. "That kind of engagement is expected, invited and it also has the added benefit of being the democratic way of government."
Related coverage:
• Some William Paterson grads turn away from Lt. Gov. Guadagno during commencement address