Christie's out of touch values take center stage

by Josh Levitt
Buono for Governor

Governor Christie’s policies and statements are consistently out-of-touch with New Jersey values. Now, following Governor Christie’s support of the DOMA ruling and his staunch opposition to marriage equality, the rest of the nation is taking notice. See for yourself below…

Somebody Wants To Be President
By Charles Pierce//Esquire
Chris Christie, reasonable conservative Republican, would like the hayshakers in the Iowa megachurches that he has their backs. "It's just another example of judicial supremacy rather than having the government run by the people we actually vote for," Christie said on his monthly radio show, as quoted by The Star-Ledger. "I thought it was a bad decision." The Republican said the majority opinion in the case - written by Justice Anthony Kennedy - was an affront to the lawmakers, and former President Bill Clinton, who helped make DOMA the law of the land nearly two decades ago. "I thought that Justice (Anthony) Kennedy's opinion in many respects was incredibly insulting to those people, 340-some members of Congress who voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, and Bill Clinton," Christie said. "They basically said the only reason to pass that bill was to demean people."

NJ governor: Gay marriage ruling a 'bad decision'
AP
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling erasing part of a federal anti-gay marriage law was a "bad decision" and an example of "judicial supremacy." In January, the Republican governor and potential 2016 presidential candidate vetoed a New Jersey same-sex marriage bill. On a radio program Wednesday, he said he'd do the same to any new legislation.

Chris Christie Blasts Gay Marriage Rulings (VIDEO)
By Paige Lavender//Huffington Post
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) blasted the Supreme Court ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act, calling it "wrong." "I don’t think the ruling was appropriate," Christie said Thursday on his "Ask the Governor" radio show, according to Politico. "I think it was wrong." Christie criticized the justices, calling Kennedy's opinion "incredibly insulting" to President Bill Clinton -- who signed DOMA into law in 1996 -- and to the "340-some members of Congress who voted for the Defense of Marriage Act."

Chris Christie attacks Supreme Court for gay marriage decision
By Rachel Weiner//Washington Post
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who has walked a fine line on gay marriage, came out strongly Wednesday night against the Supreme Court’s decision to declare a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. “It’s just another example of judicial supremacy rather than having a government run by the people we actually vote for,” Christie said on his monthly “Ask the Governor” radio show. “I thought it was a bad decision.” The governor called Justice Anthony Kennedy’s opinion “incredibly insulting” to the members of Congress who voted for DOMA and President Bill Clinton, who signed it. “He basically said that the only reason to pass that bill was to demean people. That’s a heck of a thing to say about Bill Clinton and about the Republican congress back in the 90s,” Christie said.

Why Yesterday’s Supreme Court Case Impacts New Jersey, Whether Chris Christie Likes It Or Not
By Zach Ford//Think Progress
…Besides the fact that a referendum continues to be a costly, offensive, and unnecessary option, Christie could not be more wrong; in fact, Wednesday’s DOMA decision probably has a bigger impact on New Jersey than on any other state. In the 2006 case Lewis v. Harris, the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the state’s constitution guarantees “every statutory right and benefit conferred to heterosexual couples through civil marriage.” The Court left it up to the legislature to determine how those rights are conferred, and lawmakers at the time passed a civil unions bill. An investigation that concluded in 2008 found that these “separate but equal” unions were inferior and did not meet the Supreme Court’s expectations, and a lawsuit is already pending to challenge their unequal status.

Democrats see gay marriage decision as energizer for 2013 races
By Jessica Taylor//MSNBC
Christie later said during his monthly radio show Wednesday evening that the ruling was a “bad decision” and “another example of judicial supremacy rather than having the government run by the people we actually vote for.” “For someone who prides himself on straight talking, he’s got a lot of difficulty explaining his opposition to marriage equality,” said Buono. Christie, governor of a left-leaning state, has a difficult tightrope to walk. He may be the heavy favorite for re-election in the Garden State, but he seems to have an eye on higher office in 2016 and backing gay marriage wouldn’t play as well with a GOP primary crowd. “Every decision he makes is calibrated very carefully to further his own political interests,” said Buono, who has also criticized Christie for choosing to hold an October special election rather than a concurrent November vote to fill the Senate seat of the late Frank Lautenberg.

Christie pans DOMA ruling as a “bad decision”
By Jillian Rayfield//Salon
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, R, slammed the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act, calling it a “bad decision” that’s just another example of “judicial supremacy.” “It’s just another example of judicial supremacy rather than having the government run by the people we actually vote for,” he said on NJ 101.5 FM, the Star-Ledger reports. “I thought it was a bad decision.” He continued: “I thought that Justice (Anthony) Kennedy’s opinion in many respects was incredibly insulting to those people, 340-some members of Congress who voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, and Bill Clinton. They basically said the only reason to pass that bill was to demean people.” Christie, who last year vetoed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in New Jersey, said Wednesday that he would do so again if a similar bill reached his desk.

Gov. Christie blasts 'overreaching' Supreme Court decision on DOMA, defends anti-gay marriage position, 'Let the people decide'
By Beth DeFalco and Carl Campanile//New York Post
… Christie rapped the Supreme Court ruling that tossed out the federal Defense of Marriage act -- which defined marriage as between a man and a woman and limited certain federal benefits to heterosexual couples. “It’s just another example of judicial supremacy rather than having a government run by the people we actually vote for,” Christie said.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie rips Supreme Court DOMA decision
By Adam Edelman//New York Daily News
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie blasted Thursday the Supreme Court’s landmark decision to strike down the federal Defense of Marriage Act. "I don’t think the ruling was appropriate," Christie said Thursday on his "Ask the Governor" radio show. "I think it was wrong." In the 5-4 vote that essentially tore up the 1996 law, the high court ruled that it was unconstitutional to provide Social Security and other federal benefits to opposite-sex couples while denying them to same-sex couples.
Christie called the majority opinion "incredibly insulting" to President Bill Clinton, who signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law, and the “members of Congress who voted” for the bill.

MSNBC, Hardball: Christie on DOMA

MSNBC, The Last Word: Christie on DOMA

Christie Out-of-Touch With Women

Joshua Henne wrote this Op-ed piece that appeared on PolitickerNJ last week. It talks about Governor Christie's real record when it comes to women.

By Joshua Henne
June 3rd, 2013


Today, Chris Christie is keynoting the Governor’s Conference For Women in Trenton. Perhaps he should do more listening and less talking. Because while folks might say that Christie is a fighter, he’s made it painfully clear he’s not fighting for New Jersey’s women. In fact, he’s the one holding them back when it comes to both their health and fiscal well-being.

There’s nothing moderate about the extreme, right-wing, anti-woman agenda our state has borne witness to these past few years. Christie’s knuckle-dragging decisions and out-of-step ideology are hurting women and their families.

It’s been this way right from the jump. In 2010, Christie eliminated $7.4 million in his very first budget for basic reproductive healthcare services. This money included life-saving cancer screenings, pap tests and breast health services. In 2009, these funds helped over 136,000 patients. Last year, New Jersey’s family planning providers saw at least 33,000 fewer people – a 24% drop. On Christie’s watch, six such centers have closed due to state cuts. Some patients immediately lost services and didn’t have access to other providers. Others experienced longer wait times or were forced to pay more out-of-pocket. The number of clinical breast exams alone performed at these providers fell from 70,506 in 2009 to 48,441 in 2012 – a 31% plunge.

Christie has since vetoed attempts to restore women’s health funding…four times. He claimed the state was broke. But just don't look too close into the palm of Christie’s hand - as he protects a tax break for multi-millionaires, doles out over $2 billion in corporate subsidies and proposed $540 million in business tax cuts. It’s clear where his priorities lie, and it’s not with the women and families of New Jersey.

Rather than reflect Jersey values, Christie is firmly in line with the most severe fringe on women’s rights. He’s the state’s first governor to oppose abortion rights since Roe v. Wade, and was the first to ever speak at Trenton’s annual pro-life rally. It’s no surprise Christie defunded Planned Parenthood and hopscotched the country supporting extremist Republican candidates who would outlaw abortion in the cases of rape and incest. In fact, he endorsed a North Dakota Senate candidate who voted to make it a felony to perform an abortion.

It isn’t only health where Christie fails to have women’s best interests at heart. He’s also trying to buttress the glass ceiling with cement. Christie vetoed legislation making it illegal for companies to pay women less for the same work as their male counterparts. He even supported allowing this discrimination at companies hired by the state with New Jerseyans’ hard-earned tax dollars. Apparently, Christie simply doesn’t believe in equal pay for equal work.

Moreover, when Christie vetoed increasing the minimum wage, he prevented hundreds of thousands of women working low-wage jobs from getting a modest raise. And when Christie cut the Earned Income Tax Credit – a program aimed at low-income workers – women disproportionately felt the pinch. It’s no surprise there are more women who have fallen into poverty since Christie took office.

While his policies have been harsh, that’s not the sole way Christie has hammered women - as he’s said some pretty rude things, as well. Let’s not forget when he beseeched reporters to “take the bat out on” State Senator Loretta Weinberg. Or when Christie called Assemblywoman Valerie Huttle “a jerk” for condemning his inappropriate use of the state police helicopter to watch his son’s baseball game and meet with Iowa fundraisers. Christie called Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver a liar despite evidence backing up her side of the story about trying to set up a meeting on property taxes.

Sadly, Christie’s hasn’t only lashed out at elected officials. At one of his taxpayer-funded town hall meetings - when a teacher pointed out that Christie demonizes teachers and only talks about how horrible schools are, while New Jersey is actually home to some of America’s best schools - Christie lambasted that she only wanted to “put on a show and giggle every time I talk.” He then condescendingly said “I have no interest in answering your question.” Then, during a live-call in show, when asked if its fair to defund public education while sending his own kids to private schools, Christie angrily snapped, ”Hey Gail, you know what? It’s none of your business.” And when a protester interrupted his speech at a Mitt Romney rally, Christie contemptuously sneered, “Something may go down tonight, but its not going to be jobs, sweetheart.”

One would think Christie would stop his bull in a china shop routine when it came to caring for the women of New Jersey. But alas, he’s consistently unleashed a double-barreled assault upon them. Through word, deed, partisanship and policy proposals, Christie’s treated the women of New Jersey with both mocking and malice.

What Christie says to women is pretty bad. What he’s doing to women is even worse, as he puts both their physical and economic health squarely in the crosshairs.