Republicans look to take advantage of the president's sagging poll numbers
Gov. Chris Christie and President Obama are poised to take center stage in the upcoming N.J. legislative season.TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie may not be running for the White House, but New Jersey voters over the next few weeks will still get to see him matched up against President Obama: during the campaigns for the state Legislature.
State Republicans are contrasting the governor — whose popularity is on the rise — with the Democratic president, whose poll numbers are sagging even in blue-state New Jersey.
As the Nov. 8 election approaches with all 120 state Senate and Assembly seats up for grabs, both parties are using the president and governor to get a leg up on who is to blame for the state’s 9.4 percent unemployment rate.
Republicans say it’s Obama’s fault for not doing enough to revive a tough economy he inherited. Democrats trying to defend majorities in both houses blame Christie for not supporting their package of tax cuts and programs meant to spur the economy.
Legislative elections tend to focus on local issues. But if there’s one over-arching theme, this is it.
Two weeks ago, the Legislature’s top two Republicans called a news conference to tie Trenton Democrats to Obama.
"We lost an entire decade — and 155,000 private sector jobs — in New Jersey because Democrats refused to follow the Republican plan to create a predictable fiscal environment to create jobs and grow the economy," said Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. (R-Union).
Just four days before that, more than a dozen state Senate Democrats issued news releases recounting the dire state of the economy and imploring Christie to sign their jobs package, which included some bills he had already vetoed.
"We cannot afford to sit idly by and not act while our economy stalls," read one by state Sen. Robert Gordon (D-Bergen), one of the Senate’s most vulnerable incumbents this cycle. "Now, we hope the governor will join us as well."
In a memo to Republicans outlining the party’s internal polling in several key districts, GOP State Chairman Sam Raia stressed all those districts had Christie besting Obama. "New Jerseyans are turning their back on President Obama and at the same time voters are flocking to Governor Christie," he wrote.
Kean said New Jersey voters are "angry" with Obama and believe he is "trying to lead the country in the wrong direction in terms of his economic policies."
Michael Muller, a political operative who heads the Democrats’ Assembly and Senate campaigns this year, said Republicans miscalculated by trying to paint New Jersey Democrats with the same brush as Obama.
"Barack Obama is holding his own but is obviously struggling compared to what he should be at this point, but by no means is he toxic," he said. "Voters are too sophisticated to believe an international global recession is tied to the policies of state legislators."
Obama’s sag in New Jersey polls has corresponded with a recent boost for Christie, and Democrats will be careful how they’ll take on the governor during the campaigns.
"There is a lot less of Chris Christie in these elections directly from us," said Muller. "There are times when we agreed with the governor. Our candidates will stand up and say we agree with him when he’s right and opposed when he’s wrong."
One area they’ll say Christie has been wrong is his approach to job creation, for which he was regularly pounded by Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and national Democrats while mulling a White House run the last two weeks.
Republican candidates, meanwhile, will tie themselves to their governor in campaign fliers. A flock of them took photos with Christie on a summer day at a hotel near the Statehouse.
For his part, Christie stepped up his criticism of Obama over the past few weeks and compares the Democrat-led Legislature to the federal gridlock for not passing his plan to overhaul some ethics laws. "In 376 days we’ve done nothing," Christie said at a town hall meeting last month. "We look like Washington."
Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray said both sides are avoiding problems Republicans and Democrats haven’t solved.
"What they’re trying to accomplish is not remind voters of any of the issues that are really important to them (and) how the Legislature and the governor really haven’t come to grips with the key issues like bringing down property taxes," he said.
Staff writer Megan DeMarco contributed to this report.