There are many conservatives who believe that any of the Republican candidates would make a better president than Hillary or Bernie. Those conservatives may be very disappointed should Gov. Christie happen to win the presidential election. While the Jersey Bully may be pro-life, a charismatic speaker, and a brilliant politician, this NJ citizen believes he could only be considered a Republican in the blue state of NJ.

How popular is Chris Christie really?

You may be wondering why the Governor is so popular in NJ, winning a 22% landslide over State Senator Barbara Buono in the last gubernatorial election if he’s duplicitous. To be sure, Buono was lackluster and unaccomplished to the point where her support by the Democratic Party remains a mystery to this day. Still – 22% is 22% – or is it? When you factor in that only 39.6% of NJ voters turned out for the election, mathematically Christie’s landslide equates to 23.76% of the Garden State’s voters, which represents an underwhelming vote of unconfidence in either of the candidates cast by the 60.4% of the voters who stood home on election day.

If you have ever heard Christie questioned about his abysmal record in NJ, chances are you heard him blame NJ’s failures in everything from fiscal matters, to education, to second amendment issues on the state’s Democratic legislature. The facts tell a different story.
Second Amendment issues are a prime example of the Governor’s liberal bent. While it is true that he did veto some gun legislation passed by the NJ legislature, it is also true that he signed upwards of 20 additional restrictive gun regulations. Additionally, he is in default of a lawsuit filed by Mr. Nicholas Purpura charging him with a list of crimes against the Second Amendment and RICO violations. But no worries. It is doubtful that the breath of these charges will be revealed to the public, since our honorable judiciary has tried to dismiss them clandestinely – and without due process for Mr. Purpura. They never even so much as informed petitioner Purpura of their intent to dismiss the case against Christie after Christie was in default and should have been prosecuted.

Other things…

Oh, if only that were the end of the story. As mentioned, the Governor is pro-life and he also supports traditional family values. He can back the latter up with his veto against the same sex marriage bill presented to him in the Garden State. However, in the pages of hidden hypocrisy of the day, you will find that the same week he vetoed the same sex marriage bill, he appointed an openly same sex activist to the NJ Supreme Court – an appointment that proved to be even too liberal for the notoriously liberal NJ legislature, and his appointment was defeated.

Of course he will claim to have been instrumental in keeping NJ safe and somehow associates himself with the foiled plot on Ft. Dix. It is true. He did prosecute the case in 2007, but back then he was the prosecutor of a case that was hand-delivered to his door. On the issue of terrorism, and more particularly his efforts concerning 911, his continued dismissal of the 911 families are hard to interpret as sympathetic or supportive of the terrorism many in NJ experienced firsthand. Further regarding terrorism, there is one thing Christie did to supposedly “protect” his citizens from such terrorism. He violated the 4th Amendment, and justified doing so as implementing the spirit of the Amendment. In other words, the Amendment tells us that we have a right to be secure in our persons, houses, papers, and effects…but in the same sentence it says that we have a right to be secure in our persons, houses, papers, and effect against unreasonable searches seizures. It goes on to say that this security against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and that Warrants shall only be issued in a very controlled manner that protects our citizens. Christie, not only violated this Amendment, but in a recent debate claimed he was proud of doing so in his effort to protect the citizens of NJ. Haven’t we had enough of the elitists in government that believe that they have the right to violate the Constitution because their wisdom and purpose is greater than that of our Founders? Case in point: Barack Obama and his Executive Orders on gun control.

As do most politicians, the Governor promised not to raise taxes. To support this promise, he limited property tax growth to 2%. The problem is that the limitations included so many loopholes that the townships almost felt compelled to take advantage of them. As a result, property taxes soared. My personal property taxes increased nearly 18% since Christie’s governorship, and a friend in a nearby township calculated a 22% increase!

You may be wondering how this Chairman of the Republican Governors Association supports the Republican Party in NJ. When Senator Lautenberg died, Christie was in a position where he would have been perfectly within his rights to appoint a Republican to finish out Lautenberg’s term. Instead he scheduled a special election for this purpose. Keep in mind that just prior to this, the Governor abolished the special elections the state always held for the boards of education and combined them with the days for the general elections. His rationale was a good one. It would save the NJ taxpayers $10M. However, this rationale somehow did not apply to the special election to fill Lautenberg’s seat that he scheduled for just one month prior to the general election – and he scheduled it for a Wednesday and not the usual Tuesday. It should be noted that Christie was up for re-election in the general election that was already scheduled for the following month. Some have reasoned that having the senatorial election on the same day as the general election would have brought more people to the polls to elect now Senator Cory Booker, and that this increased number of voters would have been Democrats, thereby threatening the re-election of Christie. This scenario becomes more interesting if you had seen the many photo ops taken of Booker and Christie together – reminiscent of those he took with Obama after Hurricane Sandy. Plus it should be added that Booker’s Republican challenger Steve Lonegan had also challenged Christie for the governorship in Christie’s first campaign. To make this matter even more interesting, the Lonegan campaign reported that they never received one dime of Republican money to help with the campaign – even though many NJ Republicans claimed to have sent money to the Party for Lonegan. It should also be noted that Christie was in charge of disbursing those funds.

And then there is the education question. One of the most influential positions in NJ in the field of education is that of NJ Education Commissioner. In 2011, Christie appointed Christopher Cerf to this highly influential position. Commissioner Cerf served as President Bill Clinton’s associate counsel and was also influential in the development of Goals 2000, which was the forerunner of Common Core State Standards. Commissioner Cerf’s appointment was not without controversy and due to public backlash, Cerf resigned in 2014. Afterwards, Christie reportedly brokered a deal with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka to appoint Cerf as Superintendant of the failing Newark Public Schools, where he now serves.

Don’t let the swagger fool you

In Christie’s defense, I must say that he was a respectable (and deservedly so) prosecutor. Should he covet the job of Attorney General, he would do it productively – as long as he doesn’t feel empowered to violate the Constitution at whim. He is also a very likeable public speaker, who can sell you just about anything he wants to sell at a town hall meeting, which also makes him dangerous. It is likely that his straight-forward manner will rival that of Donald Trump’s in the near future, but unlike Trump, what you get with Christie is not necessarily what you see. As a citizen of the State of New Jersey, I can say wholeheartedly: America beware. Do not fall once again for the swagger of a gifted politician. The country is at a crossroads and can’t afford to elect another president based on emotions or feelings. Look at their record, for it is not what they say that matters; it is what they have done that tells the real story.

Reprinted from The Daily Rant, copyright 2016 Mychal Massie. Used by permission.