Christie Not Running As a Republican?

by: huntsu

Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 08:41:39 AM EDT

The Chairman of the Republican Party - the Grand Ol' Party - is reported to have said that Chris Christie is not running as a member of the party.

Richard LaRossa in PNJ reported that he has multi-sourced a comment by a frustrated Jay Webber (the bold is from the original):

According to multiple sources familiar with the meeting, an exasperated Webber blurted out: "This doesn't help Chris Christie because Chris Christie isn't out there running as the Republican candidate."

Jay Webber is the hand-picked Republican state chair of Chris Christie, and also is someone who ran against an incumbent Republican to get his Assembly seat.  And he says that Christie is not running as the Republican candidate.

Now, from a strategic perspective that's probably the right move.  Republicans are a significant minority in the state, and haven't won in a long time.  The positions of the Republican platform are unpopular in the state, so running an honest campaign and telling the voters of New Jersey what he actually intends to do would be a loser.

Christie cannot -- and Webber admits this -- win a campaign by telling the truth about what he wants to do as Governor.  He has to stick to platitudes like "end corruption" and "cut taxes" without telling anything about his real plans.

Which is why he won't tell us his real plans.  It's why he won't say what parts of the budget he will cut, how many employees he plans to lay off, what departments he intends to gut, what policies he wants to pursue.  

All he will do is stand there and say, "I put people in jail!  Cut taxes!"

Because telling the truth, for Christie, is a loser.