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Sen. Lesniak hurls the iceball of criticism

A Democratic legislator Monday criticized Gov. Chris Christie and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno for vacationing out of state as New Jersey was hammered by a blizzard that has left residents digging out from as much as 30 inches of snow and slowed or halted public transportation.

Sen. Raymond J. Lesniak (D-Union) said the position of lieutenant governor was created in 2005 for the purpose of having the person elected to the position replace the governor when the individual is out of state. Guadagno was elected in November 2009 as the first lieutenant governor.

Christie is at Disney World in Florida and Guadagno is in Mexico. Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney (D-Gloucester) is the acting governor. In that role he declared a statewide state of emergency as the blizzard raged on Sunday.

That declaration was rescinded Monday night.

"We clearly made a mistake if we created the office lieutenant governor and wasted money if the lieutenant governor is not going to be here when the governor is out of state," Lesniak told The Star-Ledger. "It's being handled very well by Sen. Sweeney, but you have to really question the purpose of the office."

"It's a big snow, definitely, but the world is not coming to an end," Michael Drewniak, Christie‘s press secretary told The Star-Ledger in response to Lesniak. "We are a northeastern state and we get snow -- sometimes lots of it like this -- and we will get through it just as we always do."

Lesniak offered his criticism from Florida where he is also vacationing.

But Assemblyman John McKeon (D-Essex), who sponsored the bill to create the ballot question that proposed a lieutenant governor sees nothing wrong with Christie and Guadagno being out of state at the same time.

"The real purpose of the law was to avoid that situation where you have one person controlling two-thirds of the government," McKeon told The Star-Ledger. "I would imagine the governor and lieutenant governor will compare notes and say 'This is something we should try to avoid in the future and maybe we'll coordinate better,' but I'm not overly critical, especially during the holiday week."

Sweeney has no criticism for Christie and Guadagno. "It's easy to criticize," Sweeney told The Star-Ledger. "I'm not going to do that. It happened. There was a scheduling conflict. I am sure for the governor, this was not the ideal situation for him, me being a Democrat him being a Republican."

"Thirty-one inches of snow," Lesniak added. "Hundreds of serious incidents, roads closed down, states of emergency. This is not an insignificant incident. This is serious. I think it points to a real revaluation of at least the way this office is being handled in the future."

– TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM