CHRISTIE'S DILEMMA

Poor Governor Christie; “Fornicated by the fickle finger of fate.”

There was no course of action open to him that was not a lose/lose one. This is applicable to both his choice for filling the vacant seat until an election could be held and the timing of the election.

He had three possible choices as to the election date all subject to legal challenge due to an improperly written NJ law.

(1) The General election this November 2013. The Democrat Candidate would most likely be Booker who has already announced that he was going to seek the seat next year. Booker’s popularity is so great that he would bring many more Democrats to the polls this year and perhaps create a serious threat to Christie’s own race.  

(2)  The General Election next November (2014). In that case who he appoints to temporarily fill the seat for 17 months would be of great political importance since it would have a major impact on critical Senate votes: if he chose a Republican he would destroy any bipartisan perks that he has gained which could help in a potential Presidential race, if he picked a Democrat (Booker) he would destroy any potential support for the nomination from the right wing of the Republican Party.

(3) To call for a Special Election-his present action- with a Primary in August and the Special Election in October he eliminates the pitfalls presented by the first two choices. However he has now opened Pandora’s Box to charges of wasting $24,000,000.00 of State funds to hold an election 30 days earlier than the scheduled one. Don’t you think the Democrats will ignore that in this year’s governor’s race? 


If only our legislators would (or could) read the laws that they write; Christie would have had non controversial direction and would  have been saved from making hurtful decisions..

My own opinion is that this is the best solution. New Jersey will have a Senator in situ that will not be subject to the present negative political pressures that constrict positive action in this Congress. There is no Republican on the horizon that could beat Booker.