Gov. Chris Christie is fond of reminding people that in his 2009 gubernatorial campaign, he promised to “turn Trenton upside down.” In his successful reelection bid last week, he boasted he’d fulfilled that promise and would continue to pursue it in his second term.
It’s unlikely that when Christie made his pledge to invert the culture of state government, he intended it to extend to his selecting the Republican legislative leadership.
Two days after his 22-point victory over state Sen. Barbara Buono, though, Christie unwisely chose to become very publicly involved in a contest for the post of Senate minority leader, actively pressuring senators to support Essex County state Sen. Kevin O’Toole to replace the incumbent, Sen. Thomas H. Kean Jr.
He lost.
It was a rare political misstep for Christie and, because it was so unusual, it attracted outsized attention from the media and from those who wondered aloud about the impact of the rebuff delivered to the Governor by his own party.
Read more at
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/njspotlight/njspotlight_20131112_Opinion__Christie_Suffers_Rare_Setback_in_Attempt_to_Push_Kean_Aside.html#hb2umlmCwLQrCBXS.99
