By Eric Sedler, Cross posted to Save Jersey
Former US Attorney Chris Christie came, saw, and conquered Monmouth County in day two of his kickoff campaign. Following reports from a packed house in Toms River, Christie came to the Lincroft Inn and found a room so packed there was no place to move.
Christie stumped his kickoff speech surrounded by Monmouth County Republican support including Chairman Joe Oxley, Senator Joseph Kyrillos, Senator Jen Beck, Senator Sean Kean, Freeholder Lillian Burry, and Middletown Mayor Pam Brightbill (along with a whole host of other officials).
Bringing back lines from day one of the kickoff, Christie spoke of the difference between the Pennsylvania and New Jersey budget, his promise to make tough decisions if elected Governor and not spend one day worrying about re-election, and a powerful message about reviving New Jersey's cities and education in the state.
Also in the speech were some new additions to Christie's repertoire. He spoke of reducing regulations on businesses and towns and the positive campaign based on issues he plans to wage while his opponents may try and take the campaign into the gutter.
Perhaps the one line that brought down the house was the line about COAH. PolitickerNJ's Max Pizarro was there to cover it as Christie proclaimed, ""If I am governor, I will gut COAH and I will put an end to it."
Besides his passion for public service shining through, Christie's message really came across to me as one we have not seen in a while. His message about cities, as covered here by the Philadelphia Inquirer, was beyond enlightening to hear. Stirking a populist tone, Christie spoke of renewing New Jersey's cities and education in the urban areas through more charter schools and choice. Along with that, Christie wants affordable housing for working men and women to take place in already highly developed areas, instead of being built on open space and burdening municipalities.
For those sniping about specifics, Christie delivered, with a plan to cut spending until it is controlled and then proceed to cut income and corporate taxes. Christie also knew the COAH issue well, citing the numbers of the housing mandates imposed and painting the decision as a major harm to our environment by a Governor who says he cares about the environment.
As he concluded his speech to a thunderous applause, I couldn't help but try and think if I heard anything about corruption and ethics in his speech. Christie hit various economic platforms, his strong urban plank, education, and the unaffordability of the state in his speech. Some detractors said Christie's campaign would be singularly focused and one issue based. They say his campaign is short on specifics.
Clearly these people should have attended one of these kickoff speeches. I heard specifics and I heard a campaign with multiple focuses, including a major one on the state's economy and spending.
Perhaps addressing the detractors and primary opponents already sniping at him, Christie spoke about opponents who will try and scare you about him and attempt to divide us. He had one message to them: Enjoy being in the gutter alone, as he will not sink to that level.
I could not be more impressed with the kickoff the Christie campaign hosted today in Monmouth County. The room was buzzing with a positive feeling about the beginning of a very promising campaign and was packed full at 3pm on a work day. I look forward to hearing more from the candidates as the campaign rolls on and have yet to hear what Mayor Levine has to say. Every primary candidate in this race brings something valuable, but it's hard to ignore the tornado that hit Monmouth County today and is finishing up making it's way around the state. With poll numbers like the one's released yesterday, one has to wonder even how much of a chance the other candidates in this race have.
One thing is for sure: Chris Christie is truly a force to be reckoned with and I really believe he has the ability to take back our state and strongly lead by example.
-Note - I was in a corner where the lighting was bad, so I could not get any good pictures. I will try and post them in the near future if I find them online, I did see a familiar face or two taking photo's so I'll try and get them up here for you folks.
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Again, I am impressed with what he has to say. Although, there are aspects that I just didn't like. Such as keeping the affordable housing in densely populated areas, which means to me, lets just keep those poor folk out of townships like Colts Neck and Rumson. Didn't like the sound aaand the tone and the impression it gave off at all.I did like some of the more fiscally responsible positions though, such as making the tough choices. But that will certainly take some doing, with union contracts that we're already locked into which will take a magician to alleviate. Still, he is already anticipating that we will ask some tough questions on his ethics. He must realize that we want to know why he gave that wonderful, no bid contract to the man that saved his considerable ass when those firings were going down. I still have a problem with an ethics reform fighter doing that. It just doesn't jive in my book. Art, I"m still on the fence.
Nice coverage though Eric. Even if it is a little unabashedly gushing.
Well Rick the goal would be to improve safety and revive the cities as places where everyone wants to live. Some cities are doing this already, like parts of Newark thanks to Corey Booker and at least one are in Jersey City. But those highrisers are not affordable housing, so nobody wants to live there.
His basics on the city plan is covered well in the Inquirer and being a father of 4, I think he seemed really passionate about education and insuring the children a better future and more oppurtunity.
Say what you want about the no bid contract, but it really needs to be known that not one penny of it came from taxpayer dollars and nobody is saying Ashcroft wasn't qualified for the job.
Thank you, and I know it was a bit gushing, but damnit I couldn't help myself. Now I know how some dems felt with Obama..o crap I can't make that comparison until after the primary..heh.
the cities are where the jobs and transportation are. Mt. Laurel was a dumb decision by a Supreme Court judge who couldn't care less that he wasn't elected and thought he could legislate and dictate to the entire state. Christie is the first candidate to announce that the emperor has no clothes. COAH has been a disaster, overdeveloping the state, eliminating our rural areas, decreasing employment opportunities, giving builders incentives to build on farmland instead of rebuilding our cities. Wilentz' Mt. Laurel decision is the single greatest reason New Jersey's cities are a cesspool. Eliminate COAH and pass a constitutional amendment overturning Mt. Laurel and THEN we will quickly start rebuilding Trenton, Patterson, Camden (considered the most blighted city in the nation -- thanks to Wilentz) and other cities, because that's where the incentive will be for developers.
Every time I hear "affordable housing" in a political environment, I get confused, because it's not clear to me what it's supposed to mean. I always lived in affordable housing. 10 years ago I was living in a small 1BR apartment. 7 years ago I was living in a 2BR townhouse. Now I live in something a bit bigger. You live where you can afford to live, and the market will create housing to accommodate this demand. It's not the government's role to decide what you should afford, and what the supply should be.
Hey ambrosiajr - here's a little reality check for your politically correct world. People who live in Rumson and Colts Neck don't bust their butts to live there to have the dregs of humanity dumped next door to them by Comrade Corzine and his merry band of socialists. I loved Christie's tone. If we are going to get rid of this travesty known as COAH, it's not going to be done with the sort of mealy-mouth gibberish that you get from a Jon Corzine. Hopefully, he will ratchet it up from here.
Nice of you to think that your fellow human beings are the "dregs of humanity" just because they would like to afford a nice home in the country and maybe escape from the toils of the inner city. You are a fairly despicable human being and personally, I would rather live next to someone that's trying to do better than someone like you. And I live in Colts Neck, by the way.
Get real ambrosiajr. You sound like you are auditioning for the 70s Coke commercial on the hilltop. Have you read the 2006 housing report that details who Corzine wants in these housing projects? Ex-offenders coming out of prison, youths growing out of juvenile homes, HIV/AIDs patients, and so on. You are beyond the typical naive liberal if you believe that this isn't an expensive social engineering program bent on destroying suburban towns. Remember the 27 year old who raped a 13 year old in Middletown several months ago? He was just paroled for drugs and weapons. Yup, you guessed it, one of those fine upstanding citizens in a COAH unit who was just trying to "escape from the toils of the inner city." You are dangerously naive.
Mr. Ambrosia, maybe those words were harsh, but they reflect the truth. Ever tried to go through an "affordable housing" community?
Some people are fortunate and work harder and live in nice suburbs, others are less fortunate and live in crowded inner cities. That's life, and we're not in Pol Pot's Cambodia so the government would decide we all have to live in the same conditions.
Shades of past disasters: many imporatant folks in the tank early, for the least conservative candidate..ok, say he wins the nod.. then,the broke State Committee, (in all its usual arrogance and cluelessness,) runs the same "Dem-lite" race again, then we see the throwing around of $50 or $60 mil. of the Bozo's $$, complete with the photos of this guy with the Pres. most of NJ hasn't stopped hating, and we decend further into poorer,Bluer Jersey, if possible..a bleak, but very likely scenario many of us are so tired of reliving!!.. try something different in '09, we beg you!!
Are you that much of a minority hater to even say something stupid like that STS? How about those nice children from Holmdel and Middletown that defaced the monuments the other day. I bet they didn't come from a COAH housing area. Crimes are committed by all walks of life...just ask the people that contributed to Madoff. And Chris, apparently its still the case that the government tells you where you can live. When my local government can pay out millions of dollars to Long Branch to keep out people that would like a better life, then the government IS telling you where you can live. Now who's naive.
But its just so refreshing to see how compassionate you conservatives really are (dripping with sarcasm) and it just reinforces my core liberal beliefs.
So AmbrosiaJr... Assuming you live in a nice neighborhood which you probably do... Would you like an affordable housing building with, say, 100 units, to be built maybe 3 blocks from your house? With your new neighbors hanging around on your streets, their kids becoming your kids' colleagues, and the drug dealing in the parking lot of your favorite stores?
Don't use any political slogans, any social ideals, just your opinion as a Colts Neck resident.
Well Chris, you still have the inner city mentality when thinking like that. For one thing, in Colts Neck, we don't really have a favorite store, unless you call Delicious Orchards a favorite. And that is heavily patrolled all the time. Nor do we have "blocks", per se, so it would be hard to hang around on a non-existent block. And it if was a little bit away from me, it would be inside a horse farm. Same goes for most really rural areas. Rumson would be the same, although they do have some rental units there. Middletown would have them in the Belford section, which is already more readily populated then say, Navesink River Road. You see what I mean? I believe that getting units in areas where the living is nicer would allow the people that move in there to leave that life of hanging around the block, or dealing drugs in a parking lot. But look at some statistic too, it happens in places like Middletown and Holmdel and Marlboro anyway. Rural kids are not immune to drugs, crime and peer pressure. Its just that everyone deserves a chance to pick themselves up and do better. Will you have some bad apples? Of course you will. Do you have bad apples now? Of course we do. Everyone deserves the chance to live better, and sometimes you just have to help them a little.
This is getting beyond ridiculous. Because some stupid kids vandalize a monument, that is your justification for importing all of the urban blight into our neighborhoods? And pay billions of dollars for it? I'll go even further. I think if you really believed what you say, you would pack up and move to Camden or Newark. You would be able to live among the fine folk that you want the government to import into suburban towns - at taxpayer expense. Rather than end poverty and urban decay where it exists - the idiots in Trenton want to expand it and spread it to every inch of the state. But when you have great thinkers like Corzine and Joe Doria at the helm, this what you get. And you must be a supreme racist if you believe minorities are the only ones who are willing to take a government handout and comprise the pool of prospective tenant. Liberal hypocrisy is alive and well in Colts Neck.
Everyone deserves the chance to live better, and sometimes you just have to help them a little.
Where is the chance in state mandated/provided "affordable" housing, Rick?
Everyone in America a gets a chance to better themselves whether we deserve it or not. That is one of the greatest things about America (for the time being anyway) and why do many from around the world still want to immigrate here.
Force affluents communities throughout New Jersey to provide "affordable housing" and pretty soon the whole state will be "affordable" and broke. Those with the means to leave for a better place will. They already are!
There is plenty of affordable housing in New Jersey. You can buy townhouses/row houses in Camden, Newark and Patterson for less than $100K
As Brendan Byrne said just this week, affordable housing should be near where the jobs are. Well, there already is affordable housing near where the jobs are. Where are residents of projects built in Colts Neck or Rumson going to work? Current residents of Colts Neck and Rumson spend more commuting every month than candidates for affordable housing make in a week.
Think it through Rick. COAH can't work.
Rick, I wasn't thinking "inner city", even if you have half mile long blocks, projects residents would still hang out there and you'll see the beautiful lawns littered with anything from broken glass to syringes. And don't tell me you don't go to any stores in Colts Neck, unless you have a butler to do your shopping.
There may be drug dealing in Marlboro and Rumson but it's statistically zero compared to Asbury Park or Keansburg.
Yes everybody deserves a chance, and that's all they deserve. People need to work themselves up, because once they get help once, they become addicted to help. Remember, the Declaration of Independance guarantees the right to the pursuit of happiness, not happiness.
I came to US 9 years ago with about $4k, and no job or place to live. I didn't receive any help from any institution, and that didn't stop me in any way. So don't tell me people can't get to live in Colts Neck unless the state helps them. (I don't live in Colts Neck, but I'm already eyeing some houses in Holmdel)
I have a proposal for Ambrosiajr. Since you are obviously more saintly than the rest of us heathens who simply care about our towns and don't want our tax dollars wasted, why not do this. Why don't YOU take a family from the inner city into your house. They could live in beautiful Colts Neck at someone else's expense. I'll even go to Newark and find you one so you won't have to pay the tolls that Corzine just raised. And they'll be the real deal, none of this Brady or Huxtable stuff. We'll see how quickly you think this is a great idea then.
I did that a long time ago STS. Took in a foster child when her mother died. She was 14 at the time. Not from Newark, but Highlands. Lived with us until she turned 19. Moved out, moved back, had a child, they both lived with us for a few years after that and now we have a 16 year old grandchild. We gave her a chance and she graduated from Brookdale and worked in the lab at Jersey Shore Med. She's since moved away, but we take our grandchild on vacation with us every year. So you see, I do know what I'm talking about. And it has nothing to do with "saintly", just humanity. Of which, you seem to have none.
Rick, that's a very nice thing you did, but it's not what STS meant. He meant bringing a current inner city family, not adopting a child. They're totally different. You raise your kid the way you want it, but bringing a family with its own behaviors and set of values into your neighborhood or home is a different thing.It's the difference between Angelina Jolie adopting an Ethiopian child and bringing a Somali gang to live in Malibu.
Chris hit the nail on the head. What you did was a noble charitable act that should be encouraged and applauded. What Corzine and his goons are doing is the ugliest of destructive social engineering designed to get them voting blocs in areas that they traditionally don't fare well in and using billions of taxpayer dollars to do it. We welcome anyone who wants to live in Monmouth County - I just don't want to subsidize them. I have faith that either Christie or Lonegan will keep to their word and crush COAH once and for all.
Ya know, if I would have mentioned Middletown, I'd be at 35 comments or more by now...
Kinda funny to see how my post developed into this argument.
As for Anon comment about "Dem-lite" campaigns...I'd really wonder what the criteria is for that type of campaign. I think we have to live within the reality that it's been quite a while since a R won statewide, and it was a moderate (or as some say Dem-lite) that did it. When's the last time a Conservative won NJ (and not at the Presidential level)? Anyone?
Bueller?
Also how did Christie already end up the least conservative of the bunch? Who decides these things? What's the litmus test? It really bugs me that we like putting people in boxes and thereby already give some conservatives incentive to not like a candidate before they even know them. Labels are a dangerous thing.
Eric: go with who's supporting Christie!.. that'll tell ya, and that's the fear of us conservatives..you'll see, unfortunately..
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