2nd Anniversary of Christie Lying About Jobs Relocating from Illinois Inbox x

Hold Christie Accountable

(NEW JERSEY) – Today marks the 2nd anniversary of Governor Chris Christie flying to Chicago and promising to bring jobs to New Jersey from Illinois, following his taxpayer-funded campaign to poach from the Prairie State. As much as Christie tries to use SuperStorm Sandy as a reset button in the public eye, the truth is Christie has a three-year track record of failed policies and failing to make good on promises. Lying about bring jobs to New Jersey from Illinois is just one stunning example in which Christie have never been held accountable.

On February 4th, 2011, Christie took a trip to Chicago which may or may not have been paid for by taxpayer dollars. This came on the heels of a major taxpayer-funded public relations blitz to lure businesses and jobs from Illinois to New Jersey. Christie’s administration spent over $300,000 in taxpayer dollars on glossy magazine advertisements and radio spots starring Christie himself. Newspaper ads ran up and down the state - from the Chicago Tribune to the State Journal-Register of Springfield - encouraging businesses to pick up stakes and relocate to the Garden State.

Christie deemed the trip an immediate success and claimed to have met with some 18 various business leaders. Kraft refused to meet with him, but according to Christie, one of the companies he allegedly met with told him they were "sold" on moving to New Jersey. Yet, two years later, New Jersey has absolutely nothing to show from this taxpayer-funded trip nor has Christie made good on his promise.

Christie’s failures when it comes to jobs is more important now more than ever to remember. Month in and out, New Jersey continues to consistently trail the rest of America when it comes to unemployment. Throughout Christie’s entire time at the helm, New Jersey’s employment rate has never been above 9%. New Jersey unemployment currently hovers near 10%. On the other hand, while Christie bashed Illinois when attempting the poach jobs, latest numbers show Illinois unemployment holding steady at 8.7%, with unemployment dropping in 9 of 12 metro markets.

Today, on this 2nd anniversary of a broken promise that has never been followed-up on - and as Christie yuks it up with David Letterman - we hope the press and pundits will reach out to the governor on this particular issue and ask: “Where are the jobs Christie promised from Illinois?” It is long past time for Christie to be held accountable.

On May 24th, 2012, OneNJ penned on op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer asking where the promised jobs are 16 months after they were promised. Click here to read the op-ed.

Two weeks later, OneNJ again asked where the jobs are, when Christie went back to the scene of the lie in Chicago on June 8th, 2012 to rub shoulders with right-wingers at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Again Christie remained silent – apparently more focused on his failed audition to become Romney’s VP candidate and deepen his tea-party contacts.

Christie suffers from a pattern of neglect when it comes to jobs and working families. He recently vetoed a minimum wage hike, instead saying it should be raised a measly 25 cents. Last year, CNBC rankings had New Jersey’s business climate slipping to 41st on Christie’s watch. Christie also cancelled the bi-partisan supported ARC tunnel linking New Jersey to Manhattan that would have created 6,000 immediate construction jobs and some 45,000 future jobs.

Moreover, this is just another example of Christie’s rhetoric not matching reality, and using taxpayer dollars to boost his own personal brand – much like his taxpayer-funded GOP rallies under the guise of town halls. Isn’t it time Christie was held accountable?

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One New Jersey is shining a light on politicians who act against the best interests of New Jersey’s residents and who seek to divide our state for their own political gain. It is giving voice to the important issues that affect our daily lives. One New Jersey will closely monitor policy positions and actions of elected officials and expose their records on the issues that matter. You can follow One New Jersey on Twitter (@OneNJ) or search for “One New Jersey” on Facebook.

DUDE, WHERE'S JERSEY'S JOBS? NJ Unemployment Stands A Full 2 Points Behind National Average

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, October 18th, 2012


(NEW JERSEY) – New Jersey's latest unemployment numbers show the state continuing to lag the national average by a full two percentage points. While America's unemployment dipped below 8% to hit 7.8% in September, New Jersey's unemployment stands at 9.8% - just a breath away from double digits.

Things simply aren't getting better in New Jersey in any meaningful way on the jobs front on Governor Chris Christie's watch. Clearly, creating jobs for New Jersey residents isn't a priority for Christie. Rather than focusing on the job here at home, he's travelled all across the country sowing seeds for his own future. Since Labor Day alone, Christie's been stumping in such far flung-states as Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Montana, Massachusetts, Washington, Ohio, North Dakota, Michigan, Missouri, and Indiana.

Ironically, just yesterday, Christie's itinerary in Indiana included a visit to a distribution center for Express Scripts - a pharmaceutical benefits company whose merger with Medco Health earlier this year cost New Jersey 258 jobs in Franklin Lakes, Montvale and Fair Lawn.

For nearly three years, Christie has had his way… and the Christie way is clearly not working. Christie has no jobs plan – aside from laying off workers in the public sector and cancelling projects like the bi-partisan supported ARC Tunnel that would have created jobs. He handed tax breaks to multi-millionaires, but the “job creators” simply are not creating jobs in Christie's New Jersey. His policies have done little to nothing to avert plant and office closings. Sadly, New Jersey ranks a dismal 47th in jobs - and that was before these latest numbers were released.

Since Governor Chris Christie took office, New Jersey has consistently trailed the rest of the nation when it comes to jobs. And the trend lines are only getting worse.

If only Christie cared as much about stemming job loss at home as he did promoting his own future job and personal agenda out-of-state, perhaps New Jersey wouldn't be staring at near-double-digit unemployment. Maybe that's something for Christie to ponder as he heads to Pennsylvania and Connecticut over the next few days.

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One New Jersey is shining a light on politicians who act against the best interests of New Jersey’s residents and who seek to divide our state for their own political gain. It is giving voice to the important issues that affect our daily lives. One New Jersey will closely monitor policy positions and actions of elected officials and expose their records on the issues that matter. You can follow One New Jersey on Twitter (@OneNJ) or search for “One New Jersey” on Facebook.

Christie’sRhetoric Does Not Match Reality

The following Op-Ed was written by Josh Henne and appeared in yesterday's The Record:



GOVERNOR Christie devotes a lot of time talking about a “Jersey Comeback.” But the truth is more like an impressionist painting by Monet or Seurat. From a distance, it seems as if things make sense … but the closer you get, the more you realize the dots don’t seem to connect.

When Christie goes on the cable news circuit or beats his chest to sympathetic audiences in far-off states, he paints a vivid picture. But in New Jersey, folks know the rosy rhetoric isn’t matching reality.

Whenever I hear beltway talking heads gush about Christie, I feel like yelling at the screen: “You’re not from New Jersey. You have no clue what you’re talking about.”

You aren’t sitting in traffic outside the Lincoln Tunnel or on a delayed train coming into Penn Station because Christie canceled the bipartisan-backed ARC tunnel linkage to Manhattan. Your kids’ teachers aren’t the ones being used as a political piñata to score points. Nor did your children lose out on $400 million in Race to the Top funding because your governor bungled the application.

Your air, land and water won’t be filthier because Christie is allowing corporate polluters to rewrite the rules via Department of Environmental Protection waivers. You aren’t living in a state where one out of every 12 mortgages is in foreclosure, and whose business climate has landed the state 41st out of 50. And you don’t have a governor who vetoed women’s health four times at $7.5 million a pop maintaining the money wasn’t there, while giving $261 million in bailout money to casino moguls.

Christie’s boosters point to popularity in the polls as if it gives him a mandate to run roughshod. But these same folks should realize that in 1997, Gov. Christie Whitman came within a whisker of losing to a completely unknown Jim McGreevey a mere year after polls had her at 62 percent.

This Christie’s numbers are due more to dumping millions of unanswered dollars into television advertising than actual ability to govern.

Face-saving exit
Every time Christie claims he doesn’t want to run for national office, I immediately think of Br’er Rabbit begging Br’er Fox not to throw him in the briar patch. It should come as no surprise that Christie relished being in the mix as Romney’s potential running mate, not just to feed his ego, but also because the opportunity would provide a face-saving exit valve from a state whose residents know the true story.

Just last month, unemployment spiked nearly half a point to 9.6 percent – the most severe monthly increase since 2009 and the largest disparity from the national average since 1978.

In fact, underemployment stands at 15.5 percent. For Christie, success is measured in increments of attention rather than measurable improvements for his constituents. Recently, the governor’s staff squawked about hitting 5 million YouTube hits, as if that’s a measure of success. Viral videos, retweets and Facebook “likes” are not the numbers that matter to New Jersey residents.

The real stats are grisly in the Garden State. Chronically lagging the nation when it comes to unemployment, allowing corporate polluters to rewrite environmental regulations and borrowing money the state doesn’t have to subsidize a tax cut for multimillionaires – that’s Christie’s New Jersey. We have a state economy that ranks 47th in the nation and are facing a property tax rate jump of 20 percent – those numbers mean something.

Now that the fantasy of his vaunted “comeback” is crashing down around him in the face of actual facts, Christie is acting like a man with one foot out the door. Clearly, the governor is a gifted politician with a calculating mind for campaign strategy. So when he vetoes funding for women’s health, nursing homes, after-school programs and repairs at the Marcellus Street Bridge in voter-rich Bergen County a mere year before Election Day, one has to wonder if Christie’s head is in the game … or if he even still holds designs on standing for reelection.

Seeing enemies
Christie is acting downright Nixonian in seeing enemies lurking around every corner. At first it was Democratic legislators bearing the brunt of his anger — which is to be expected in politics. Today, he sees adversaries everywhere: in the classroom, at press events, even on the boardwalk.

With each escalating incident, Christie repeats himself – first as tragedy, then as farce. Maybe this is all just a brilliant smokescreen designed to divert attention from his failures or to set himself up for a job in the entertainment industry.

Christie may skip town before the piper comes to make him pay for his failures. It’s New Jersey’s taxpayers and families who are going to be left holding the bag.

Joshua Henne is a co-founder of White Horse Strategies, a New Jersey-based political consulting firm, and is a spokesman for One New Jersey.

CHRISTIE BELIES HIS “BIPARTISANSHIP”

For Immediate Release:
Monday, May 7th, 2012

In Speech to Right-Wing Think Tank, Christie Shows True Colors

(NEW JERSEY) – On Friday, Governor Chris Christie once again jetted off to speak to a fawning out-of-state audience in his incessant quest to bolster talk about being a potential vice-presidential pick. This time it was at an awards banquet in Washington, D.C. sponsored by The Cato Institute – a right-wing think tank.

The next time Christie tries to tell someone he is bipartisan and there is room on the big boulevard of ideas in New Jersey, just remember these words from his speech:

"I could sit down and negotiate with the Democratic leadership and the Democratically controlled legislature to try to come to an agreement on these cuts, or, thanks to New Jersey's unique Constitutional structure, cut spending through executive order. Now, for those of you who watched me over the past two and a half years, if you believe I chose the former, then it is now time for you to leave. You are note smart enough to be here at the Milton Friedman Dinner." – Governor Chris Christie (5/4/2012)

In Christie’s world, bipartisanship means others simply acquiescing to his desires both politically and policy-wise. The Christie definition of bipartisanship is dictating the policies and getting Democrats to vote for them. This is a stale retread of the “my way or the highway approach,” rather than his lip service of meeting others on the boulevard of ideas.

Here is just a small sampling of Christie’s “bipartisan” leadership:

• Demanding income tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the super-wealthy, rather than more equitable property tax cuts that help middle-class families
• Saying he had better things to do – like re-arrange his sock drawer – than debate a Democrat over New Jersey’s tax plans
• Refusing to even contemplate a millionaire’s tax
• Line-item-vetoing women’s health funding – which traditionally has bipartisan support in New Jersey
• Pushing an ALEC-approved raft of policy proposals
• Rolling back decades of environmental protections via the DEP Waiver Rules
• Pulling New Jersey out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)
• Cancelling the long bipartisan-supported ARC Tunnel linking New Jersey to Manhattan
• Waging war on an independent judiciary
• Degrading defiant Democrats with name-calling – such as “jerk”, “numbnuts” and “liar”

** One more note from the Cato Institute speech that shows how Governor Christie plays fast and loose with the facts is when Bergen Record columnist Herb Jackson noted: “Christie stressed the importance of being honest with the public, but he also used exaggerated figures to make the deficits he closed and the tax cuts he’s enacted and proposed seem larger. For example, he cited the multiyear value of tax cuts.”

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One New Jersey is shining a light on politicians who act against the best interests of New Jersey’s residents and who seek to divide our state for their own political gain. It is giving voice to the important issues that affect our daily lives. One New Jersey will closely monitor policy positions and actions of elected officials and expose their records on the issues that matter. You can follow One New Jersey on Twitter (@OneNJ) or search for “One New Jersey” on Facebook.

BUONO: ARC TUNNEL REPORT SHOWS CHRISTIE’S PATTERN OF DECEPTION

For Immediate Release:
4/10/12

State Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex) issued the following statement today regarding the GOA Report regarding the ARC Tunnel cancellation.

“When Gov. Christie shot down the ARC tunnel, he sacrificed jobs, transit improvements, and $3 billion in federal funds. That was bad enough, but now we learn that he was misleading the public regarding the facts of the project.

“We’ve seen this pattern of behavior by the Christie Administration previously when they misrepresented the facts surrounding the $400 million in Race To The Top federal education funding that his administration failed to secure.

“Recently, the governor and his press secretary gave incompatible answers on whether Christie is pushing legislation bought and paid for by right-wing industrialists.

“The governor has created a pattern of sacrificing truth at the altar of his political ambition. This latest revelation – that he misstated facts to kill the largest public transit project in the nation – may be the most egregious and damaging.

“He said at the time, ‘I don't want to hear about the jobs it will create.’ Now, he owes an apology to the workers in the unemployment lines who would have benefitted from 6,000 construction jobs and 40,000 permanent jobs that were tied to the ARC project.”

OP-ED: Governor Rex Christie

In light of the big game tonight, Josh Henne sent me a link to this op-ed he wrote on the striking similarities between Rex Ryan & Chris Christie. It appears over at PolitickerNJ:

In a sea of vanilla coaches and milquetoast politicians, Jets Coach Rex Ryan and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie have burnished reputations for bluster, bullying and bombast. They’re tailor-made for the attention-deficit, me-first, sizzle-over-substance society we live in. A splashy quote, a bold claim with a curse-word thrown in for good measure…and bickety-bam you’ve got a nice hit on the nightly news or a clip to go viral online. Sure, these two men can be considered refreshing. But so is a colonic. And you certainly don’t want to deal with either on a daily basis.

It stands to reason these two larger-than-life characters stand out – because Christie and Ryan both furnish the media with quality copy and soundbites. However, there’s a fine line between being charming and becoming a caricature of yourself. And leaders are afforded a short rope before folks start realizing the rhetoric doesn’t match the results. In recent months, Christie and Ryan have planted their feet firmly on the wrong side of both accounts.

The beauty of both politics and the playing field is that these arenas are results-oriented. The metrics of wins and accomplishments are the only ones that matter. It’s not just about who can talk the biggest game. And the shtick employed by both Christie and Ryan runs thin once you scratch the surface of their swagger.

No one remembers football teams who never make it to the big game – no matter how many times their coach promises a trip to the Super Bowl. Rex believes if he yells loud enough folks will forget choking in the conference championship or failing to even make the playoffs. If Ryan makes himself the story, perhaps fans won’t notice his team regressing or his quarterback failing to grow.

In politics, its hard to take someone seriously who hogs the spotlight, bashes his own state to pander to Iowa crowds and tosses the word “hell” into public statements like a twelve-year old who just discovered cursing. It’s difficult to believe someone is authentic when they pack taxpayer-funded townhall meetings with partisan backers and care more about generating youtube moments than results. It’s hard to take Governor Christie at his word as he pledges poverty when cutting essential programs, yet miraculously finds funds to give handouts and bailouts to casino execs, mall developers and those at the tippy top of the economic strata.

The words “doing the big thing” are often shouted to the rafters by Chris Christie. Yet if you look at actual results, he comes up small every time. New Jersey lags the nation when it comes to employment. And no matter how many times Christie claims he hasn’t raised taxes, all anyone has to do is hold up a train ticket, scan a tuition bill from a state university or look at their property taxes to see swelling costs.

Both Christie and Ryan have an amazing ability to change the topic following failures. Rex shoots off his mouth after a loss, giving excuses while still calling his team the one to beat - no matter how badly he was outcoached by those who might not be as flashy, but have more substance. When Christie skipped town with an historic blizzard bearing down on his state, the governor refused to take responsibility and even blamed local mayors when he finally came home from his Disney vacation. When New Jersey’s children lost $400 million in Race to the Top funding because his administration bungled a simple application, Christie first blamed Barack Obama and then threw his own Education Commissioner under the bus.

Chris Christie might not share Rex Ryan's predilection for sucking on toes. But the governor does spend an inordinate amount of time and energy sucking up to the Koch Brothers, Karl Rove and corporate lobbyists. And that’s a far more nefarious fetish. Because these one-percenters are seeking to scale back regulations in order to better their bottom line - even if it means poisoning New Jersey's land, air and water. In Christie’s New Jersey, middle-class families find themselves in harms way time and again.

Like Rex Ryan, Christie’s image as a take-charge guy rings hollow when you see the rudderless execution of plans. Womens’ health, infrastructure improvements and education efforts have all been defunded. Cops and firefighters receive pink slips, while crime escalates. And Christie has no vision for the future – as evidenced by cancelling the ARC Tunnel linking to Manhattan which would have taken cars off the road, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, raised home values and created 6,000 immediate jobs and 45,000 future jobs.

On the playground, the cardinal rule is that when you’ve got a big mouth you’ve got to be able to back it up. The quickest way to shut up a bully is to call them out. And for all their blunt statements and bold claims, folks are finally catching onto the Christie-Ryan playbook. The coach and the governor have both elevated the bar with inflated achievement to the point that even slight improvements would seem mundane when the tale of the tape is truly told. More and more, their exhortations are being met with eyerolls and yawns.

With his annual guarantees of a Super Bowl victory, yet failing to even make the playoffs this year, Rex Ryan is clearly no second coming of Joe Namath. And Chris Christie...well, let's just hope he goes the way of Sarah Palin. A one-term governor with a big personality who burst onto the national scene and became addicted to the adulation to the point of diminishing returns and eventual ridicule.

What society needs – in all facets of life - are leaders of substance focused on results, not their own ego or personal gratification. Clearly, Coach Ryan and Governor Christie care more about creating headlines than making a real difference. We should treat them like a parent dropping off a crying kid at nursery school. All they want is attention, so if we just walk away hopefully they'll get the hint and cut the act.

Josh Henne is a Democratic strategist and a Giants fan.