Free Republic

The governor won’t meet with a leading New Jersey warmist critic. Hello from the Paul Robeson Center for The Arts, located on Paul Robeson Place, just a few blocks down from Princeton University. They like their hardcore communists here in Central Jersey. But they also make really great coffee, which is why I make it a point to meet up with my long-time lefty friend in Palmer Square where we have plenty of options. In print, we’ll call her “Moonbeam,” to prevent our association from destroying her standing in the community, and to make it clear that her environmental policy...

First lady Michelle Obama didn’t directly address New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s decision to have weight-loss surgery in an interview that aired Wednesday, but she said his struggle shows why her “Let’s Move” exercise program is so important.(snip) “It’s something between the governor and his family, and I try not to comment on people’s personal choices. I think Governor Christie is terrific and you know, his family is wonderful, and I wish them the best.”

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is taking heat from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals after he killing a spider on his desk in front of a class of fourth graders. In a video titled, 'Governor Christie Saves School Children From Spider,' his fearless spider-swatting skills are witnessed to cheers from his daughter, Bridget’s classmates after it caused a commotion on his desk. He tells the children after delivering it a quick slap by his palm that it's just one of the many perks of being governor. 'Any bugs on your desk you're allowed to kill them...

Hillary Clinton and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will be the featured attractions at next month’s Clinton Global Initiative in Chicago, according to a release going out from the group Thursday. The focus of the gathering, which will take place June 13-14, is on speeding up the United States’ economic recovery and the nation’s long-term outlook.

HIGHLANDS, N.J. — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Monday that President Barack Obama "has kept every promise he's made" about helping the state recover from Superstorm Sandy. Speaking on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program on the 6-month anniversary of the deadly storm, the Republican governor said presidential politics were the last thing on his mind as he toured storm-devastated areas with Obama last fall.

Six months after Superstorm Sandy devastated the Jersey shore and New York City and pounded coastal areas of New England, the region is dealing with a slow and frustrating, yet often hopeful, recovery. Tens of thousands of people remain homeless. Housing, business, tourism and coastal protection all remain major issues with the summer vacation — and hurricane — seasons almost here again.

New Jersey has the second toughest gun laws in the nation—it’s one of seven states with an “assault-weapons ban,” one of three with a one-gun-a-month law and gun shows are not permitted. But on Friday when the nation was fixated on the events in Boston, Gov. Chris Christie was pushing for even more gun control.

Philip Checchia’s home in Barnegat, New Jersey, escaped undamaged from Hurricane Sandy in October, but the 67-year-old is bracing for a different kind of storm damage—higher property taxes. New Jersey home owners already pay the highest taxes in the country, with the revenues going to fund schools, police, firefighters, roads, and building projects. When the value of taxable property drops in one area, the burden often shifts to others to make up the difference. At the epicenter of the problem is Ocean County, where Checchia lives, and where miles of long, fragile barrier islands bore the brunt of the storm's...

Talk about an odd couple. Liberal media mogul Arianna Huffington is bringing GOP star Gov. Chris Christie to the White House Correspondents' dinner later this month. The governor will feel at home with the Huffington Post founder's other guests: New Jersey natives Jon Bon Jovi of Sayreville and Shaquille O'Neal of Newark, according to Women's Wear Daily, which first reported the invites. Shaq recently visited Christie at the Statehouse in Trenton.

There is no front-runner now for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, leaving a five- way horse race with no candidate above 19 percent among Republican voters, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie, who ran better than other Republicans against top Democrats in a March 7 survey of all American voters by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN- uh-pe-ack) University, gets only 14 percent of Republican voters today. Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio gets 19 percent of Republican voters, with 17 percent for U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, 15 percent for U.S. Sen. Rand...

Underwater doesn't even begin to get at the heart of Maurice Corkery's predicament. "This was my summer home," the Delaware County plant manager said of his little rancher on Third Street in Ocean City, N.J., flooded with its foundation cracked - totalled, really - by Sandy. "I was trying to think of a time line," he said. "It's been so long. I'm so screwed up. I haven't seen any money. Where is the money? All they do is talk about it." [snip] "It seems like people who are responsible and have paid for coverage are the losers," he said. "The...

The popular New Jersey governor angers conservatives — again — by announcing he'll go along with ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, still in the GOP dog house for saying nice things about President Obama's handling of Superstorm Sandy mere days before the November election, angered conservative critics once again this week by announcing that he would expand Medicaid under ObamaCare. The news came as the organizers of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the annual enclave of the nation's conservatives, said they didn't invite Christie to this year's gathering because he has a "limited future" in the...

Hard to argue with that assessment today of all days, but … Mitt Romney’s also been invited this year. The future doesn’t get any more limited than that. Also, since when is one’s prospects in the GOP a litmus test for whether you’re CPAC-worthy or not? Every time someone objects to GOPround’s exclusion, the rejoinder inevitably comes that it’s the “Conservative Political Action Conference,” not the “Republican Political Action Conference.” Okay, in that case, who cares about Christie’s future in the GOP? Either his ideas are conservative enough or they aren’t. Verdict: They aren’t. Or rather, one isn’t. New Jersey...

Gov. Chris Christie will expand the state's Medicaid program to cover 300,000 uninsured New Jersey residents, The Star-Ledger learned today. The governor's new budget, which he plans to unveil at joint session of the Legislature this afternoon, also relies on state revenue growth of 4.9 percent and delays some property tax rebates for local taxpayers, according to three sources with knowledge of the budget plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

I have my issues with him just like you do, but c’mon. Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush are conservative enough to speak at CPAC but not Christie? He’s the current vice chair of the RGA and will be chairman next year for the midterms. He’s headed for a landslide reelection victory in a deep blue state, where his approval rating is currently the highest for a New Jersey governor in the 17 years since Quinnipiac started tracking that. He’s one of the few members of the party with a national profile who’s reasonably well liked by voters across the board....

Gov. Chris Christie got the seat of honor at tonight’s annual governor’s dinner, sitting next to first lady Michelle Obama. The New Jersey governor, a Republican, joined governors from across the nation at the annual Governor’s Association Meeting, and at one point, clinked glasses with the president’s wife. Mr Obama had praised Gov. Christie for his response to Hurricane Sandy and his effort to get funding to those who were most affected by last October’s storm.

Colorado -–(Ammoland.com)- Just last week Governor Christie was a no-show at an important gun-rights rally. And with anti-gun lawmakers in Trenton ramming more gun control down the throats of law-abiding New Jersey gun owners, I’m afraid Governor Christie might cave in to their anti-gun agenda. Make no mistake, what they have in store for you will only make the problem worse. New Jersey already has some of the nation’s most anti-gun laws — second only to California. And just like other bastions of Second Amendment hatred, these laws have done virtually nothing to keep citizens safe. Gun owners already must...

On Sean Hannity's Wednesday radio show conservative commentator and “Mugged” author Ann Coulter laid out what she viewed to be the proper criteria for the Republican Party’s 2016 presidential hopefuls. She ruled out rising-star Texas Sen. Ted Cruz as a potential candidate unless the United States were to absorb Canada’s three most western provinces due to eligibility questions stemming from the fact that Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta. Beyond that, Coulter also wants the next GOP presidential candidate to live up to certain gender and appearance standards. “Look — the general principles on choosing our next president, and like...

ATLANTIC CITY – Somers Point attorney Seth Grossman formally announced his campaign for governor today, saying Gov. Chris Christie has been wrongly perceived as conservative. “He’s been running New Jersey like a Newark ward leader,” Grossman said. Grossman, who seeks the Republican nomination, said he wants to challenge the Republican establishment by running conservative candidates across the state. He announced his candidacy with about a half-dozen supporters at a barren lot off of Rhode Island Avenue, about a block from Revel casino. Grossman has opposed the tax incentives that allowed Revel to finish construction, and has said that city residents...

Gov. Chris Christie paid tribute Thursday night to President Barack Obama, thanking him for his help in successfully passing the Hurricane Sandy aid bill in January, and continuing the unlikely public alliance between the Republican and Democrat.

State Sen. Richard J. Codey would rather focus on his family-owned funeral business than run in November against Gov. Christie, the Essex County Democrat said Friday. Despite weeks of speculation and a trip to Washington to woo big donors, Codey decided to scrap a campaign after his youngest son, Chris, said he would like to go into the family business and asked Codey to forgo the gubernatorial race. … With less than nine months before the election, Democrats have yet to rally around a gubernatorial candidate. Christie, meanwhile, becomes ever more the juggernaut: The Republican has raised more than $2...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I was watching Fox this morning -- well, I never really watch it, it's just on while I'm in the midst of doing show prep. Sometimes, for whatever reason, I'll actually look at the monitor, something attracts my attention, sometimes I'm just looking for a break from what I'm doing. I looked up there and I saw this graphic the bottom of the screen. You know what it said? "Sandy victims shiver in Northeast without heat." Victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has friended New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan will host a fundraiser next month in California for the Republican’s reelection campaign, a Christie official and Facebook confirmed. BuzzFeed first reported the fundraiser, noting that Christie met Zuckerberg three years ago when the Facebook founder gave $100 million to Newark public schools. The two appeared on Oprah with Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who was expected to challenge Christie this year until deciding to campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2014. At the time, Zuckerberg was facing negative press associated with the then-upcoming...

RUSH: We have, of course, the gun control battle raging on. The status of the Republican Party, where are they today, where do they stand, what are their prospects? We have the New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, he condemned the NRA ad. Did you see that? Let me find the sound bite. I told the broadcast engineer we're gonna start with Lance Armstrong, and I just decided we're not. Now, I gotta find Chris Christie. There it is. Number one.

Chris Christie is immensely popular and is a huge favorite for reelection in New Jersey this year, with voters from across the political spectrum giving him the thumbs up. When it comes to the national conservative base, though, the governor is at risk of earning a different one-finger salute. Christie is already on probation with some conservatives for his praise of President Obama’s work on Hurricane Sandy in the closing days of the 2012 election — something a few critics have even suggested put the president over the top. Now the potential 2016 presidential contender has lashed out at the...

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a possible 2016 presidential contender, on Friday slammed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, another potential presidential hopeful, saying a number of the governor’s recent positions would likely alienate GOP primary voters. “I think criticizing the Second Amendment movement and the over-the-top ‘give me my money’ stuff, ‘I want all 60 billion now or I’ll throw a tantrum,’ I don’t think that’s going to play well in the Republican primary,” Paul, the libertarian-leaning GOP senator, said of the Republican governor. Those remarks, made on “The Laura Ingraham Show,” referenced recent comments from Christie on gun control and...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie slammed the National Rifle Association’s latest ad in which they accuse President Barack Obama of hypocrisy for sending his children to a school where they are protected by armed guards. Christie called the ad “reprehensible” and said that the NRA should not be “dragging people’s children” into the gun control debate. RELATED: NRA: Those Who Think New Ad Is About First Daughters Are ‘Missing The Point Completely’ “I think any of us who are public figures, you see that kind of ad and you cringe,” Christie said on Thursday at a news conference in Trenton....

(Reuters) - New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie harshly criticized the National Rifle Association on Thursday for referring to U.S. President Barack Obama's children in an ad that advocates putting armed guards in schools, calling it "reprehensible" and "wrong." "I think it's awful to bring public figures' children into the political debate," Christie said at a press conference in Trenton, New Jersey.

<p>New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is labeling “reprehensible” the National Rifle Association ad that brought President Barack Obama’s daughters into the gun-control debate.</p> <p>The NRA ad accused the president of being a hypocrite for allowing his daughters to be protected by armed Secret Service agents but not embracing armed guards for schools.</p>

TRENTON – Gov. Christie blasted the NRA’s new ad focusing on President Obama’s daughters – he called it “reprehensible” – but he wouldn’t given an opinion about a proposed federal assault weapons ban. Christie’s extensive comments on the issues of guns and violence came during a news conference this afternoon at the Statehouse in which Christie announced the creation of a task force to examine “violence control” measures in the wake of the shooting massacre in Sandy Hook. Led by two former state attorneys general, one Republican and one Democrat, and made up of

In the early, and later, days of the 2012 Republican primary, a steady stream of pundits kept a slow but steady chant of “Christie, Christie, Christie” humming along in the background, daring the popular Republican governor of a Democratic state to step up to the plate and run for national office. And though he played coy with his supporters, sending proxy messages while insisting that he was devoted to his work at home, the don of Jersey never took the final step, settling instead for a national role as a prominent Romney surrogate. That was then, and to be honest,...

Chris Christie says he’ll be “more ready’’ if he decides to run for president in 2016. In the most dramatic statement yet about his political future, Christie was emphatic when asked by the Newark Star-Ledger if he will be more prepared to run in 2016 than he was this year. “Yeah, you’re damn right I’d be more ready,’’ the outspoken New Jersey governor said. Christie — running for his second term for governor this November — told the newspaper he hopes to beat his opponent by the biggest margin of any Republican. "I'll consider that a raging success and a...

Christie, by his own admission, is "not a subtle personality" and he likes to take charge. Those two traits figured prominently in how the rising Republican handled Sandy. From his frequent, televised updates to residents as the storm's winds whipped the state's beaches to his criticism last week of fellow Republican John Boehner's decision to delay a U.S. House vote on federal storm aid, his handling of his native state's worst natural disaster may one day be considered the defining moment in the political career of a budding presidential contender. The timing of the storm _ days before a presidential...

A pork-barrel feast of goodies for federal agencies to fix museum roofs in D.C. and aid fisheries in Alaska, cooked up in the middle of the night, is not the way to aid hurricane victims or run a government. As if the fallout from agreeing to a bad deal that raises the debt by $4 trillion and accepts a 41-1 ratio in tax hikes to spending cuts weren't enough, Speaker of the House John Boehner has New Jersey's Chris Christie on his case. "There's only one group to blame," the New Jersey governor said of the Sandy relief bill that...

The Left's love affair with N.J. Gov. Chris Christie continues ... so long as the outspoken pol is trashing his own party. Christie made headlines today by blaming the death of a Hurricane Sandy relief bill loaded with pork squarely on the GOP. “There is only one group to blame,” he ranted. “The House Majority and John Boehner. Last night, the House Majority failed the basic test of leadership and they did so with callous disregard to the people of my state. It was disappointing and disgusting to watch. Shame on you, shame on Congress.” That sentiment earned kudos from...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is fuming over the House’s decision to not hold a vote on Superstorm Sandy relief package. Speaking at a news conference Wednesday afternoon, the Republican governor said the only group to blame for decision is the House’s GOP majority and Speaker John Boehner. Christie said he tried calling Speaker John Boehner four times Tuesday night, but Christie said Boehner didn’t take his call. Christie says the storm aid measure is not something you “play politics with” when people are suffering. Christie said “our people were played last night as a pawn. And that’s why people...

After Wayne LaPierre spoke of the NRA's desire to help make children safer by using its own money and resources to train teachers and work with police departments to have an armed presence at every school that wants it, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former RNC chair Michael Steele joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg in crying foul. Said Christie: "In general, I don't think the solution to safety in schools is putting an armed guard because for it to really be effective in my view, from a law enforcement perspective, you have to have an armed guard at every classroom."...

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie said tonight that gun control is one of several issues that must be examined to prevent tragedies like Friday’s school shooting in Connecticut. On New Jersey 101.5 FM’s "Ask the Governor," Christie said Americans should engage in a "national discussion" about gun control, as well as the stigma associated with mental health treatment and violence in the media. "What role does the media play in terms of the violence we see on television and the movies? And the violent video games that I think desensitize our children to the real effects of violence. So I...

A new poll has New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie leading the 2016 GOP presidential field.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said concerns that his weight would prevent him from serving as president were “ridiculous” in an interview set to air Wednesday. In an interview for Barbara Walters’s “10 Most Fascinating People” series, the broadcast veteran asked the New Jersey governor how he would respond to “people who say that you couldn’t be president because you're so heavy.” “That’s ridiculous, I mean, that’s ridiculous,” Christie responded. “I mean, I don’t know what the basis for that is.” …

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama asked Congress Friday for $60.4 billion in federal aid for New York, New Jersey and other states hit by Superstorm Sandy in late October. It's a disaster whose cost is rivaled only by the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2005 Hurricane that devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Obama's request adds a huge new to-do item to a congressional agenda already packed with controversy on how to resolve the nation's budget woes and avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. "Our nation has an obligation to assist those who suffered losses and who...

TRENTON, NJ — Gov. Chris Christie says Superstorm Sandy caused $36.8 billion in damage in New Jersey. Christie is requesting that amount, which is greater than his state's entire budget, from the federal government. Christie says more than 30,000 homes or businesses were destroyed or sustained substantial damage from last month's storm.

Says because of Hurricane Sandy in Atlantic City "much of that boardwalk no longer exists -- just the pillars where boardwalk used to be." Hurricane Sandy washed iconic Jersey Shore landmarks into the sea, but despite what you may have heard -- from social media, television or maybe even a United States senator -- the historic boardwalk fronting Atlantic City's casinos survived. Two weeks after the monstrous storm swept through New Jersey, devastating large swaths of the state’s coastline, Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat, took to the Senate floor to describe the destruction and push for funding for recovery efforts. In...

Gov. Chris Christie is warning New Jerseyans living in storm-wrecked towns that they're likely to see higher local property taxes to help pay for rebuilding. Christie, .... said an exemption to the state's 2 percent tax cap law is emergencies like Sandy, which destroyed coastal towns, knocked out rail service and left 2.7 million households in the dark. While municipalities can expect federal reimbursement for most storm-related cleanup costs, residents will most likely foot the bill for rebuilding. ..... New Jersey residents already pay the highest property taxes in the country, averaging $7,758 per household. The property tax cap law...

... will back him, say that it it is his turn, and not Chris Christie's turn, etc. /Sarc. I mean, George Bush defeated McCain, and so McCain was the presumptive "next in line," (that's how it works, right? /sarc) although he still had to fight for it and had at one point sunk pretty low --- even captioned carrying his own baggage. And McCain defeated Romney, so it was then Romney's turn --- and he was next in line --- right? But does this rule only apply to RINOs? Speaking of Chris Christie... Given what Limbaugh said about Christie, and...

Tens of thousands of New Jersey residents are without power. Many have lost homes and everything else that they have. Some don’t have enough to eat and others are struggling to stay warm. This is not the time for a responsible leader to go do his self-promoting shtick on Saturday Night Live. But Christie seems so tone deaf that he puts his self-promotion ahead of anything else.

Late last week, in a conference call with donors, Governor Mitt Romney said what we all know to be the truth: that Obama's reelection plan was to divide Americans across various lines and dole out government freebies, such as health insurance, amnesty, and birth control. The promise of these "gifts" (or the fear of losing them) would then drive out turnout, specifically among those who did turn out: blacks, students, and Hispanics -- and lo and behold, it worked. For days now, Romney's been blistered by the media for telling a truth about a political tactic that the media itself...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Friday added his name to a growing list of Republicans who are rebuking Mitt Romney over his “gifts” comments. “You can't expect to be a leader of all the people and be divisive,” said Christie on MSNBC’s Morning Joe when asked if he agreed with fellow Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, who was one of the first to criticize the former GOP nominee over the comments. In a conference call with donors Wednesday, Romney said that minorities and young people voted for Obama because he offered them “gifts.” Said Christie: “You have to...

Fat chance for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s White House aspirations in the wake of his post-Sandy bromance with President Obama. National Republican political consultant John McLaughlin said Christie didn’t do himself any favors with his enthusiastic embrace of Obama after Hurricane Sandy devastated his state — or with his arguably self-serving Republican National Convention keynote speech.... McLaughlin added that just “a couple of days after” Christie lavished praise on Obama, the president “certainly might have deserved some criticism, and still to this day, because the federal response in the area is nonexistent in a lot of ways.” Christie has...

The Koch Brothers think-tank, Americans for Prosperity, handed down a warning to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for not rejecting provisions in the ACA to submit health insurance exchange plans ahead of the health law’s full implementation. Republicans were already furious with Christie for praising President Obama’s rapid response to the super-storm Sandy that ravaged parts of the East Coast last week, and now the Koch Brothers are pressuring him to reject a New Jersey exchange bill to rebuff the ACA’s requirement before a November 16 cutoff date for states to set up health insurance exchanges. If states fail to...