Reports of Christie’s Political Demise Are Greatly Exaggerated

New Jersey and national Democratic politicos who are dancing with glee over the ‘damage” they think they are inflicting on Governor Chris Christie’s second term effectiveness and his presidential ambitions might as well enjoy the moment.  Reports of Christie’s political demise are greatly exaggerated.

Starting today with his State of the State address (which can be viewed live here at MMM at 3PM) Christie’s comeback will begin.  A comeback that the governor starts with a 59% job approval rating, according to the Monmouth University/USA Today-Monmouth/Ocean Edition Poll released yesterday.

The poll that was taken Friday through Sunday, indicated that even with the onslaught of negative publicity that Christie has gotten locally and nationally, New Jersey residents don’t care about Bridgegate with regard to how they view Christie.  His job approval rating is net positive 27%.  His personal approval rating is down to net positive 16%, but his negatives haven’t moved since Patrick Murray last asked the approval question in November when the net positive number was 31%.  28% had a negative opinion of Christie is Murray’s pre-election November survey. 28% expressed a negative opinion in the survey published yesterday.  The 15 point drop in Christie’s net personal approval rating is the result of New Jerseyans waiting for the full Bridgegate story to come out.  Those who said they have “No Opinion” of Christie personally, increased by the exact 15 points from November to January and the 15 point drop in those who said they had a favorable personal opinion.

Even though New Jerseyans think Christie knows more than he is saying about Bridgegate, we are giving him the benefit of the doubt.  We still like him.   If a smoking email surfaces that proves he knew of the George Washington Bridge lane closures, and what they were really about, he’s toast.  If such an email exists, it will probably come out. If it doesn’t exist, Christie will come out of Bridgegate a stronger political force than he was last Tuesday, before The Record published the damning emails.

Christie knows if such an email exists.

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The State of The State

Governor Chris Christie will deliver his State of the State Address to the newly sworn State Legislature this afternoon at 3PM.

View the address live here:

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SALON CONCRETE HOSTS ‘HELP FOR HAIYAN’

SALON CONCRETE HOSTS ‘HELP FOR HAIYAN’ (via redbankgreen)

Christine Zilinski of Salon Concrete styles the hair of Maritza Soler of Port Monmouth, in a file photo from 2012. From press materials furnished by J Jems Communications When the Jersey Shore was ravaged by Hurricane Sandy, Salon Concrete owner Christine…

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The Nation’s Most Duplicitous Republican

By David Wanetick, Princeton, NJ

Governor Christie claims to have had no prior knowledge of the September George Washington Bridge closing orchestrated by his staff for purposes of political retribution against Fort Lee’s mayor. Why would he? He is above petty and partisan politics. At least that is what Governor Christie wants us to believe.

But is it really difficult to imagine that a man who has inflicted such enormous damage on his own party through his calculated and duplicitous behavior would not be at least equally vengeful against unsupportive mayors from the opposing political party? Let’s review some recent history.

Chris Christie was given his party’s highest honor when he was chosen to deliver the keynote address at the Republican Convention in August 2012. Instead of ginning up support for the Republican presidential nominee when he had the chance to appeal to tens of millions of voters, Christie made an ostentatiously narcissist speech that trivialized Mr. Romney. A day or two later, Christie claimed not to understand what was expected of him in delivering the keynote address.  Are we really to believe that Chris Christie didn’t know that the Republican Convention was about getting that party’s candidate elected?

Did Mr. Christie correct his behavior after disgracing himself at the convention? No.

He shamefully used the tragedy of Hurricane Sandy to enshrine nearly every step President Obama made during his visits and to rhapsodize about the President’s calls in connection with restoration efforts. At a time when he could have been very constructive in helping the Romney campaign, Christie was giddy in his constant Obama worship. Christie sounded more like a teenage girl’s first encounter with a suitor than a statesman in relating Obama’s telephone calls to him. (Here is Christie cooing over his late night calls with Obama, “…President Obama called me last night around midnight … I have to say the.…president himself…. have been outstanding with us so far..….. I want to thank the president personally for his personal attention to this.”)

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Monmouth Leaders Speak Out On Bridgegate, Christie’s Response.

We’re hearing plenty about Bridgegate and Governor Christie’s response to it from cable news pundits and late night comedians.  MMM thought it would be interesting to hear what our Monmouth County leaders, from both parties, have to say about the controversy and Christie’s response to it at his press conference last Thursday.

Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long, said “No, and I’m angry that some are tossing by name around as if I’m waffling about my endorsement,” when we asked her if she regretted endorsing Christie in light of the Bridgegate scandal. “Bridgegate is terrible, but it does not undue the Sandy recovery.  My endorsement was based on the Sandy recovery.   Let’s wait and see what happens when all the facts come out. Right now it’s a feeding frenzy.”

Senator Jennifer Beck said, “The governor has always straight forward me with, and he was forthcoming in his press conference on Thursday.  I believe him.”

Monmouth County Republican Chairman John Bennett said, “Governor Christie was open and sincere in his press conference.  He said that he will now talk to everyone on his staff himself to get to the bottom of what happened.  This issue may have gotten away from him because he departed from his usual practice of doing it all himself.

“Unfettered and overzealous politicos on Christie’s staff went way over the mark.  The lane closures were a bad, bad idea that never should have happened.”

Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal hasn’t returned our calls since we debunked his malicious and inaccurate attempted character assassination of a Red Bank Republican Council Candidate last October, so we asked his predecessor, Victor Scudiery, and the man who opposed him in the chairman’s race in 2011, Frank LaRocca to comment.

Former Monmouth Democratic Chairman Victor Scudiery said, “I take Chris Christie’s word for it. We’ll have to play it out and see what happens.  Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon, it’s frightening, but we have to wait and see.”

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Bridge scandal to be investigated by special committee empaneled by N.J. Assembly

Bridge scandal to be investigated by special committee empaneled by N.J. Assembly (via NJ.com)

TRENTON — Leaders in the state Assembly said today they will form a special investigatory committee with subpoena power to continue the probe of the September lane closures on the George Washington Bridge. The committee will be led by Assemblyman…

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Reckless Media Reports Federal Investigation Into Christie On Pallone’s Say So

Governor Chris Christie and HUD Sec Shaun Donovan announce Sandy Relief Grants in Highlands, April 29, 2013

More on this story here and here.

UPDATE:  Ian O’Connor of the HUD’s Inspector General’s Office responded to our inquiry regarding the audit into the #Stronger Than The Storm ad campaign.

We asked:

“Is this audit anything other than what would occur in the normal course of events regarding any HUD grant?

Congressman Frank Pallone thought it would be clever to inform the media that the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s audit into funds granted for Sandy Relief was an investigation into Governor Chris Christie and his appearance in last summer’s #Stronger Than The Storm ad campaign.

CNN and the left stream media either fell for it or went along this morning. 

MMM asked Ray Zaccaro, Pallone’s press contact in Washington for documentation that the audit is anything other than the normal course of business. Zaccaro said there was no documentation, just a phone call from someone at HUD responding to Pallone’s August letter on the matter saying, “yeah, we’ll look into it.”  Zaccaro said that HUD wouldn’t discuss investigations, “except with us, Members of Congress.”

MMM reached out to Brian  Sullivan in HUD’s press office for confirmation of a separate investigation.  Sullivan referred us to Marta Metelko in the HUD Inspector General’s office.  We received an auto reply from Ms. Metelko referring us to Mr. Ian O’Connor. We’ve yet to hear back from O’Connor.

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Sandy Hook’s Fort Hancock a step closer to getting a makeover as more than just a beach destination

Sandy Hook’s Fort Hancock a step closer to getting a makeover as more than just a beach destination (via NJ.com)

Like many young teens in the mid-to-late 1960s, Julie Hankinson spent some of her best days at Sandy Hook. Hankinson, though, had an advantage. She didn’t have to leave after the sun set or when the school year started. She lived there year-round…

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Bridge scandal: Democrats say they will pursue investigation into lane closures

Bridge scandal: Democrats say they will pursue investigation into lane closures (via NJ.com)

By Salvador Rizzo and Mark Mueller Democratic lawmakers say they will “aggressively” press on with their investigation into the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal after Friday’s release of thousands of pages of documents showing key members…

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Drones may fly over Jersey Shore, under Rutgers research project

Drones may fly over Jersey Shore, under Rutgers research project (via NJ.com)

NEW BRUNSWICK — Sea gulls and banner planes may not be the only things flying along the Jersey shoreline this summer. The Federal Aviation Administration announced last month that a consortium of universities, including Rutgers, was one of the winners…

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