FDU re-surveyed a group they had polled from October 26th through 29th during the week before Thanksgiving. Christie’s approval rating went from 56% before Superstorm Sandy to 77% following the hurricane.
The Rutgers-Eagleton poll released on November 21 gave the governor a 67% approval rating, post-Sandy, amongst registered voters.
Governor Chris Christie and First Lady Mary Pat Christie will be in Middletown this afternoon to acknowledge Hurricane Sandy First Responders and Volunteers.
This Christies are scheduled to arrive at the Port Monmouth Fire House, 125 Main Street, Port Monmouth at 3 PM. They will address the press following their meet and greet.
Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno will be attending the Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund Benefit at Buono Sera Palazzo, 1033 West Park Ave, Ocean Township, this evening.
The event will feature live entertainment, silent auction, cocktail party and dancing. Scheduled entertainers include Big Joe Henry, Pat Guadagno, Kyle Grooms of Comedy Central & The Dave Chappelle Show, Gordon Baker-Bone, Craig Mahoney & Carolina Hidalgo. Spotlight performances by Vini ‘Mad Dog’ Lopez, Bobby Banderia, Marc Ribler, Brian Kirk, Sonny Kenn, Joe Petillo, Matt O’Ree.
Tickets are $100 and are available through Buono Sera Bar and Restaurant, 732-530-5858.
Trenton, NJ – New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that weekday PATH service will resume to Lower Manhattan along the World Trade Center line beginning Monday, November 26 at 5 a.m.
The World Trade Center PATH line will run Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., with stops in New Jersey at Newark, Harrison, Journal Square, Grove Street and Exchange Place and in New York at the World Trade Center. Disabled access will be available at Newark and World Trade Center.
Floodwater from the storm surge of Hurricane Sandy had inundated the World Trade Center station, covering its track bed with several feet of water. Port Authority PATH crews have worked around the clock to remove millions of gallons of water from the tracks and platforms and also to fix and replace damaged switching and signal systems as quickly as possible. Weekend service will not yet be available to enable crews to continue the remaining necessary repair work.
The restored service to the World Trade Center will be in addition to the PATH service currently running from Newark in New Jersey to 33rd Street in New York. That line is running seven days a week between the hours of 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. and includes stops in New Jersey at Newark, Harrison, Journal Square, Grove Street and Newport stations and stops in New York at 9th, 14th, 23rd and 33rd Street. Once service resumes at the World Trade Center on Monday, service on the 33rd Street line will resume running between Journal Square and 33rd Street and will make all station stops including Christopher Street in Manhattan.
Weekend service on the Journal Square to 33rd Street line extends to Harrison and Newark in New Jersey. Disabled passengers have access to the platforms at Newark, Journal Square, Newport and 33rd Street.
Service at the Hoboken station, which saw unprecedented and widespread flooding remains suspended due to the fact vital switching equipment was destroyed and cannot be salvaged. Crews are working 24/7 to replace the signal equipment and restore communications in the tunnels, a process that is expected to take several weeks.
To provide additional mass transit options from Hoboken to Manhattan, the Port Authority and New Jersey Transit are operating a ferry service from the Hoboken Ferry Terminal. NJ Transit customers will now be able to take a bus to the Hoboken Ferry Terminal and then transfer to a ferry that will take passengers to Pier 79 at 39th street in Manhattan. The fare is $5 and ferries will run back and forth between Hoboken and Manhattan from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., Monday thru Friday. Free shuttle buses will be provided from Pier 79 to midtown Manhattan.
Passengers who normally use the Hoboken station to get to Manhattan can also choose to make the ten minute walk to the Newport station, or take advantage of several other ferry and bus alternatives. Ferry service to Lower Manhattan is available from Liberty State Park and to Midtown Manhattan from Weehawken, New Jersey. In addition, NJ Transit has increased the number of No. 106 buses from Hoboken to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in both directions.
For up-to-date information on PATH service, visit the Port Authority’s website at www.panynj.gov/path/and follow them on Twitter @PATHTweet.
The pollsters that Governor Chris Chrisite called “crap” last month released the first post Hurricane Sandy independent poll this morning. The results give the governor extremely high marks for his handling of the superstorm which ravaged the Jersey Shore and impacted 66% of all New Jersey residents.
On October 9, Christie reacted to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll that indicated improving approval ratings but soft support for his reelection by calling the Eagleton polls “crap.”
“It’s never good, it’s never accurate. When it’s good for me, it’s not right, when it’s bad for me it’s not right,” Christie said according to PolitickerNJ. He said he would not comment about future Eagleton polls.
But Sandy was a live changing event. Don’t be surprised if Christie has something honest and refreshing to say about today’s polling results when questioned by a reporter.
92% of the respondents said that Christie handled Hurricane Sandy well. 69% said he handled it “very well” and 23% rated him “somewhat well.”
The other 8% are cranky and don’t like fleece. (MMM’s assessment, not a poll result)
81% answered that Christie and President Obama showed the “needed cooperation and bipartisanship” in handling the aftermath of Sandy. 12% said Christie went too far in his praise of the president.
Christie’s ovrerall favorability rating now stands at 65%, 67% with registered voters.
49% of Democrats, 70% of Independents and 89% of Republicans now have a favorable impression of the governor. Only 38% of Democrats report an unfavorable impression of him, down from 68% in early October.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker, considered the only Democrat with a chance to defeat Christie in the 2013 general election, has not been active on twitter since the poll was released.
In early December of 2005 I attended the annual holiday gathering of the Monmouth Ocean Development Council. This particular party stands out in my memory of the hundreds of such parties I’ve attended over the years because of the entertainment. A jazz band from New Orleans was touring the country to raise money for the Katrina recovery efforts. Their music was fabulous. Their plea for help is what stuck with me. It was deep, personal and profound. The wreckage seen on television four months earlier was a distant memory for me, until I felt a little of the pain in that band’s plea.
The difference between hearing about and watching news accounts of a devastating hurricance and living through the aftermath of such a catostrophic event is like the difference between watching porn and having sex, though not nearly as fun. It’s not fun at all.
FEMA Approves 5 Additional Days of Full Reimbursement for Emergency Power Restoration and Transportation Assistance in Hard Hit New Jersey Communities
Trenton, NJ – Governor Chris Christie announced yesterday that President Barack Obama has approved a 5-day extension of the federal cost share for Hurricane Sandy, from 75 percent to 100 percent for emergency power restoration and emergency public transportation assistance, including direct federal assistance, for those areas of New Jersey within counties designated for public assistance.
“I want to thank the federal government for the continued responsiveness to the needs of New Jersey as recovery efforts continue – particularly this extension which recognizes the additional challenges posed by the winter nor’easter and our ability to make full and proper use of the initial 100 percent reimbursement approved by the President on November 1st,” said Governor Christie. “As we continue to make progress after each of those storms to restore power and get people’s lives back to normal as much as we can, this assistance will remain critical to our recovery and clean-up efforts.”
The previously approved increase of reimbursement authority will now continue through November 14th, rather than expire yesterday as previously schedule. This increased level of federal assistance program pertains to those areas of New Jersey that were previously declared a federal disaster area, including Atlantic, Cape May, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, and Union counties. Other forms of Category B assistance remain at a 75% cost share, consistent with the initial approval of assistance.
More information on the original November 1st approval of 100% cost share for these expenses can be found here.
As someone who has witnessed the destruction of my hometown and the devastation Sandy wrecked upon the lives of so many people I care about, I really don’t care if the partnership that Governor Chris Christie forged with President Barack Obama contributed to Obama’s reelection.
As I embraced my dear friend while we were standing in the wreckage of what used to be her mother’s home while she was crying, “she’s going to die,” the last thing I cared about was politics.
For over a week I’ve witness my neighbors’ possessions be piled into a garbage transfer station that used to be a parking lot and then be loaded into trailers be be trucked away. Soon many of those neighbors will be living in trailers in a park while someone else decides when, how and if their homes can be rebuilt.
I won’t complain that I haven’t slept in my own bed and there is no power at my house. I still have a house. My friends don’t. My friend, the mayor, his wife and three young children are sleeping on cots in a gymnasium.
I could care less that Christie wept when Bruce Springsteen called him a friend. I care even less that Obama facilitated the friendship.
I am comforted that Chris Christie is doing his job and doing it well. I am comforted that he assembled such a competent team to form his administration three years ago and that they work so well together.
I can’t imagine Jon Corzine, Richard Cody, Jim McGreevey, Christie Whitman, Jim Florio, Tom Kean or Brendan Byrne being as hands on or as competent as Christie has been in this crisis. I also can’t imagine Cory Booker doing the job that Christie has done or assembling as good a team to do it.
Chris Christie is doing his job and doing it well. He’s witnessed far more of the devastation to New Jersey than I have. I’m pleased that for the last weeks he hasn’t cared about politics either.
Pundits on both sides of the aisle are saying that if not for Hurricane Sandy, Obama may not have been reelected. That could be true. But given Obama’s record, the state of the world and the economy, the election should not have been close heading into the last weekend in October.
Obama said he will be a better president as a result of the campaign. He said he heard those who opposed him and his policies. I hope that proves to be true. We’ll know soon enough.
I don’t think Chris Christie will be a better governor because he has Obama’s cell number. I think it is more likely that Obama will be a better president because he has Chrisite’s number.
