Two New Jersey newspapers denounce Chris Christie's 'abysmal' performance
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Version 0 of 1. Two New Jersey newspapers on Saturday called Governor Chris Christie a failure for his state, rejecting the Republican presidential candidate’s sales pitch to Americans that he has an accomplished record and sound judgment. Related: US presidential election 2016: the state of the Republican race as the year begins The editorial boards for sister papers the Asbury Park Press and the Courier News denounced the governor, joining the Star-Ledger in loudly criticizing Christie and citing residents who consider their governor “a failure across the board”. “New Jerseyans, it seems, positively hate the job he’s doing for the state,” the Courier News board wrote. Drawing from a survey, the Press graded Christie’s performance in the last year. It handed down poor marks in nearly every subject, flunking the governor on the environment, energy, gun control and transparency. He received Ds on the economy and leadership and at best he received a C, regarding the state’s recovery from Hurricane Sandy. “There was once promise,” the board wrote, noting Christie’s early success on pension reform, but “he had a thoroughly abysmal 2015”. The Press argued that Christie has proven himself a negligent leader, “content to leave New Jersey on autopilot while he campaigns for president” during more than 200 days out of state in 2015. Christie has criticized a rival Republican candidate, Marco Rubio, for missing votes in the Senate, saying: “Dude, show up to work and vote no.” The Florida senator responded, telling Iowa voters Christie “has been missing in New Jersey half the time”. The Courier News agreed, and called Christie “a disaster on the environment” for taking a settlement from $225m ExxonMobil over a pollution case. It said he had been “embarrassingly weak on gun control”. The papers also ridiculed Christie for his about-face on President Obama, whose help he welcomed – with an embrace that became infamous on the 2012 election trail – after the devastation of Sandy. “Whatever courage may have been involved” in facing up to Republicans over the embrace, the Courier News wrote, “was fleeting at best”. The Courier News also noted the suspicion of corruption and cronyism swirling around Christie’s office, underscored by the continuing scandal over a 2013 partial closure of the George Washington Bridge by a politically motivated staffer. “The governor is widely and rightly seen as a secretive, devious officeholder with a taste for luxury and a thin skin,” the board wrote. The Newark-based Star-Ledger reported extensively on the bridge scandal, and has offered its own scathing review of a governor it has previously endorsed. On Friday the paper published an editorial arguing that Christie “has lost his marbles” for arguing that his unpopularity is a sign of his willingness to make tough decisions. Related: Chris Christie, a rising star in GOP wars, hopes force awakens New Hampshire Christie’s approval ratings in New Jersey have plummeted, with only 33% approving of his performance, according to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll, and 61% want him to abandon his presidential ambitions, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. A Monmouth University poll found in July that 57% of New Jerseyans want Christie to resign. Nationally, Christie has struggled, ranking sixth in the Republican primary, at 3.7%, according to a HuffPost average of 33 pollsters. He has performed better in New Hampshire, with 10.8%, and where an influential newspaper endorsed him. The Union-Leader endorsement provoked a spat with the Star-Ledger, which accused the other newspaper’s board of ignorance regarding Christie’s record. The Union-Leader has waded into the Republican race in an attempt to boost its preferred candidate, last week publishing a front page editorial attacking the frontrunner, Donald Trump. |