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Republican national chief stumps for Christie in Vineland
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VINELAND - Republican National Chairman Michael Steele stumped for Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie on Monday, vowing support from the national party in the coming months.
Steele joined Christie on campaign stops in Vineland and Pitman before Christie went on to an Ocean City event without him.
Steele promised an audience of about 100 people at the Larry's II restaurant in Vineland that support would be forthcoming. He declined to specify what support that would be, referring to legal changes over the past few years that could limit financial support for Christie, who has opted to accept state matching funds for his campaign.
"We're going to work within those limits, and we're going to be here for Chris Christie in every form and way imaginable," Steele said.
Steele was prompted to address the finance issue by 80-year-old Frank Gana, a longtime Republican activist from Vineland, who publicly and directly questioned Steele on the issue.
When asked afterward if he thought the national party would support Christie, Gana said, "I'm truly skeptical. You can quote me on that. In the past, they haven't done what they should've done because they consider this a loss."
"They pay lip service," Gana added. "If they are sincere, if they want Christie to win, they have to spend the money necessary to win."
Christie expects to be outspent by incumbent Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a multimillionaire and former chairman of Goldman Sachs who has spent a great deal of his own money on his own and other Democratic campaigns in New Jersey. Steele alluded to that when he referred to Corzine as "a candidate who figures, 'I'll just buy it. I bought everything else.'"
The question is by how much Corzine will outspend Christie, and that is where the national party apparatus comes into play. Gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia are the only two statewide elections this year nationwide. A recent poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University had Christie ahead of Corzine, 45 to 39 percent, and another poll by Quinnipiac College is expected this week.
Christie made his name as a corruption-busting U.S. attorney, winning corruption convictions against more than 130 elected officials, and he has sought to paint Corzine as out of touch with the average voter.
"They're suffering under the burden of a governor that is no longer in touch with the people of New Jersey," Christie said during the Vineland event.
Although the event was open to the public, mostly Republicans attended. Among them were elected officials and candidates from Cumberland, Atlantic and Cape May counties.
Christie has drawn support from Republicans such as Greg Facemyer, who said he had become disaffected with President George W. Bush's administration and its expansion of federal government's powers.
Christie is "not a party machine kind of guy," said Facemyer, a Hopewell Township committeeman. "He didn't come up through the state party. He's independent. I think he's gained a lot of respect nationwide putting criminals in jail."
Michael Piatt, who runs a Vineland daycare center, felt similarly, pointing to President Obama's backing of an economic stimulus plan that directs billions of dollars toward public works projects. Piatt sees Corzine and New Jersey Democrats as being of the same mindset.
"(We're) getting fearful over how big government is getting under Obama," Piatt said.
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Posted in Cumberland on Tuesday, July 14, 2009 4:00 am Updated: 5:56 am.
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