Prepare for the Attempted Romnification of Chris Christie

Cory Booker: Ruled by the Blue Twitter Bird and Obama's White House
Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D): one of Governor Chris Christie's potential 2013 Democrat challengers.

It won’t be easy, Save Jerseyans. Chris Christie boasts a much more “relatable personality” than Mitt Romney. That’s what the pollsters tell us.

But New Jersey Democrats are desperate. They haven’t been able to land a serious political punch in three years. So they know there’s only one way to take down New Jersey’s celebrity governor in 2013:

shock and smear.

Jon “MF’n Global” Corzine’s anti-Christie smear campaign — which I eloquently dubbed the “boobs, bullets and b******t” strategy — didn’t work in 2009 precisely because Chris Christie is so relatable. Remember those horrendous “Christie hates mammograms” ads? Unfortunately for Corzine, Christie didn’t look or sound like a boogeyman who wants to steal your sister’s birth control and let your nutty neighbor purchase a personal tank. It was “the economy, stupid,” and Corzine came up short. The cold, remote, wonkish Corzine couldn’t convince voters that he cared about them; Romney suffered a similar fate for not-all-too-different reasons.

Would Corzine’s approach work better in 2013 if the Democrat candidate was more relatable? Someone who didn’t consider sweater vests a legitimate fashion choice?

They’d better hope so.

The only two “serious” candidates out there are Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Senate President Steve Sweeney. Both have plenty of flaws worth discussing (and don’t worry, we will), but suffice it to say for now that both gentleman will have a really hard time substantively attacking Chris Christie’s record.

They both supported pension and benefits reform. They both backed Christie’s property tax cap. They’ve even found substantial common ground on an issue near and dear to my own heart — school choice. Sweeney, choking back tears, once called the Governor a good guy at an event for children and adults with disabilities. Booker and Christie have cut a short film together. Can they turn around and convincingly indict the Governor?

As a Democrat, how do you win a challenger race when you’ve supported the incumbent’s major initiatives?

I suppose much the same way Obama took down Romney by relatively narrow margins in the key battleground states: (1) drive home the tried-and-true class warfare “eat the rich” argument and (2) saturate state airwaves with personal attacks and mailboxes (digital and old school) with highly-targeted coalition messaging. Hurricane politics notwithstanding, New Jersey and New York were the only states were Obama increased his victory margin in 2012 over 2008. This is still a blue state. Sure, a gubernatorial electorate is materially different than a presidential electorate; as in all things political, seeing “how different” it is next fall will make the difference.

I’m not going to say it’ll work, folks. Again, Christie isn’t Romney, and I don’t think Booker or Sweeney are Obama. Especially not the later. 

I just want every Save Jerseyan to be prepared for how they’re going to play this one… very, very dirty. President Obama will come to town (this time to aid the challenger), and the Big Labor assault might make the Walker recall effort look like a minor skirmish. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

 

Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8405 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.

7 Comments

  1. Always the cynic. Maybe they'll discuss legitimate issues this time around. How do you know what will happen. I also think that his bullying tactics would be fair game and then let the people decide if they like that approach. Personally, I have a new found respect for Christie with his handling of the storm and the frequent news conferences to keep us all up to date. Maybe they have found respect also and will stick to the issues. Why are you trying to stir the shit even before it happens?

  2. Also, Democrats are not bad people…they just see things differently than you. Stop demonizing…(isn't that what YOU always complain about????)

  3. There's always hope for a substantive campaign, but after what we saw from Corzine in '09 and Obama in '12, am I planning on it? Sadly no.

    You should raise your voice as an active Democrat and demand better if the eventual Dem nominee goes off course.

  4. Ya know Matt…the presidential campaign was a two way street…Mittens and his PACs kept throwing out some pretty nasty stuff too…no angels there. Lies were told on both sides, but you only see the one side. How many "pants on fire" did Ryan get? He couldn't open his mouth without telling a lie. I don't think he even knows how to tell the truth. Please stop making it all one sided…that's just not fair.

Comments are closed.