I never understood how he got elected in the first place unless it was all just Christie backlash. Exactly that. NJ has a cycle. It goes like this:
- Democrat hack gets elected, raises taxes and enriches his friends. Everyone hates him. Voted out after one term.
- The new Republican governor starts off with big talk about change then does just enough to win re-election but basically does nothing of consequence. Eventually compromises with dems to screw the public. Things continue to get worse.
- In backlash, another dem hack is elected for a single odious term so that he can enrage people enough to vote for another republican who does nothing and the cycle goes on and on and on.
Christie played his part to perfection. Loud mouth, no accomplishments, got rid of the one good thing we had which was cheap gasoline by taxing it. Then it was the time for a democrat in the cycle, that's ll.
Basically. Add on to your premise that the legislature is almost always Dem controlled and this is what you get.
We’ll see what happens but it is noteworthy that we’ve always had GOP Governors and never a US Senator from that party.