CPAC 2013 Participants Including Ken Blackwell, Peter Schiff and Steve Kink Offer Their Opinions On Chris Christie to ‘Save Jersey’
By Synnove Bakke | The Save Jersey Blog
We all know Chris Christie wasn’t invited to speak at this year’s CPAC convention in DC, Save Jerseyans. When asked about Christie being among the un-invited, the ever outspoken politically opinionated Ann Coulter said, from the podium, “Christie is off my list, but Senator Ted Cruz is still there.”
But that’s one opinion. Save Jersey wanted man-on-the-street reactions to the Christie exclusion. What follows are some CPAC participants’ take on the topic (including some famous names); more to follow! I hope you find’em as interesting as we did…
Ken Blackwell – I see Ken every year at CPAC. He’s a great guy, and I enjoy chatting with him. Ken overall thinks Governor Christie is doing a great job for NJ but he does not think he can win if he runs in our national primaries as it stands now. He gives the Governor a “C” grade on social conservative issues. However, Ken feels he’s done a great job fiscally by getting spending under control, and decreasing taxes in NJ to make the state more affordable….
On one end I feel in terms of good Republican Governors he’s right up there. Whether its Kasich in Ohio or Walker in Wisconsin, and McDonnell in VA, they are all Governors of their respective states and that state is your first responsibility. Your number one priority is the folks in your state. When I’m asked about Chris and how he’s doing, and if he is positioned for 2016, I think he has a shot, but he’s not in a strong position because at the end of the day you have to win over the primary voters. This reminds me of my friend Jack Kemp. When he was running, I ran 3 states for him. And I always told him before you run the general you have to win the primary, and to win the primary you have to be where the primary voters are on the issues.
On one hand, I feel Christie would be a very strong general election candidate. But the main question is, can he win the primaries? Its fascinating because I used to sit and talk about this with Jack Kemp and he was convinced he could speak in a language that was attractive to blue collar union workers and that’s important. There were those who were skeptical about him but Jack said you can’t convince them unless you engage them. Hey, if politics was easy it wouldn’t be worth doing. But it’s all fun anyway.”
Congressman Steve King of Iowa – The Congressman is at CPAC every year as well, and he always takes the time to chat with people. I found him relaxing in the lobby bar and he didn’t mind chatting about our Governor. Steve King thinks the Conservative party needs to be more inclusive, and regrets that Governor Christie has been hounded so much lately. He said the Governor seems to have the state of NJ under control and that’s what he needs to concentrate on. Steve King feels Christie should keep on doing what he’s doing.
Peter Schiff – Dismissed Christie outright even after I bought one of his books. Peter said he was a huge Lonegan supporter in 2009 primaries, and still would prefer to have Lonegan as the Governor of NJ.
Lisa Miller – Organized one of the first TP rallies in DC on July 4th 2009, and have been involved with the TP movement ever since. Lisa is not very happy with Governor Christie, and it’s not due to the social issues. She strongly dislikes his stance on taking federal money, the Medicaid expansion, and taking federal aid for super storm Sandy. Lisa feels the states should raise their own money and take care of their own issues. She said Sandy was not the responsibility of the federal Government to deal with. She didn’t particularly care for the Obama hug after Sandy either.
While I was sitting on a bench outside, I also met up with some of my CPAC friends from last year including former Navy Seal Benjamin Smith and his very sweet Mom. They introduced me to Robert Spencer, the founder of Jihad Watch.
I asked how they felt about Governor Christie not being invited and how they feel he’s doing.
Robert Spencer was critical, arguing “Christie really doesn’t have any idea of the nature and magnitude of the Jihad threat.” Spencer was especially critical of Christie’s controversial appointment of Judge Sohail Mohammed to the bench in New Jersey (click here for the background), leading Spencer to conclude Christie is “doing a great disservice and I certainly hope he loses his next election.”
Benjamin Smith was more forgiving:
For NJ, it’s like Scott Brown in MA, you’re not going to get conservatism out of primarily blue states. But I feel Christie does a lot of good. You can use the term RINO (Republican in name only) because I believe he has left tendencies, but he’s got backbone. He’s a great leader in his state, and he’s very much a product of it. He stands up to things he knows are wrong. But he has funny stances on issues like guns and abortion. He’s also standing up to things that don’t work right like the unions. He’ll stand on principles that are more patriotic American there. You may not call him a Conservative Republican, but you know that man has a heart. He may not always be popular for his stances, but isn’t that mainly what our parents teach us? You don’t have to be the most popular kid in the room but you have to stand for what you believe in, and what’s right. It doesn’t matter if at the end of the day you have less friends, you’ve done the right thing. I believe praising Obama , and taking the relief money is part of the reason he didn’t get invited here to CPAC. Right now within the Republican party, you’re seeing civil war. They’re so much at each other’s throats. I think he should have been invited.”