Republican Gov. Chris Christie and legislative Democrats spent the day furiously spinning last night's election results
Gov. Chris Christie spoke at a press conference at Newton Medical Center today.TRENTON — Republican Gov. Chris Christie and legislative Democrats spent the day furiously spinning last night’s election results, in which Democrats added one seat to their majority the Assembly and held the line in the state Senate.
At a press conference this morning, Christie blamed the results exclusively on redistricting – a process Democrats won back in the Spring, giving them a favorable legislative district map.
“The fact is, they won one seat that they really won back in April,” Christie said, at Newton Medical Center in Sussex County. “The map pretty much did what we thought the map would do… I was no guarantor of results here.”
“There were no competitive races last night – none,” he added.
But in a conference call with reporters, Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), the state Democratic Chairman, said Christie’s leadership style was partly to blame for Republicans’ anemic results last night.
“Tuesday night was a clear indication that New Jersey had enough of Gov. Christie and Republicans who march in lock step with him without asking questions,” he said.
The one seat Republicans lost was due to redistricting. Assemblyman Domenick DiCicco (R-Gloucester) — the only Republican to pick off a Democratic seat two years ago — was shifted into a less friendly district and easily defeated by Democrat newcomer Gabriela Mosquera.
Christie instead highlighted more local results, saying the Republicans picked up more county seats than the Democrats across the state, most notably the freeholder boards in Salem and Cumberland counties. Double-digit registration advantages for Democrats in districts 7, 27 and 38 were examples of the steep climb that his party faced in mounting an attempt on the Legislature’s Democratic majority.
“We were on offense everywhere; they were on defense everywhere,” said Christie, who denied the election was a referendum on him. “There wasn’t one Republican threatened last night throughout New Jersey.”
Democrats refused to let Christie off the hook, noting he cut commercials for Republicans in several districts.
“He clearly wanted to be a factor in this election by injecting himself in his TV commercials and personal appearances,” said Wisniewski. “The state of New Jersey is quickly increasing in its Christie fatigue index.”
Michael Muller, executive director of the Democrats’ legislative campaign effort, said the issue of women’s health played heavily into the 2nd Legislative District, where state Sen. Jim Whelan (D-Atlantic) fended off a challenge by Assemblyman Vince Polistina (R-Atlantic) by a relatively comfortable margin.
“We saw in 2010 Tom Goodwin go down against Linda Greenstein primarily over the issue of women’s health,” said Muller. “We saw it again with Vince Polistina. How many Republican legislators are going to have to go down before Chris Christie gets it on women’s health care."
By Matt Friedman and Seth Augenstein / The Star-Ledger