newjerseynewsroom.com

Governor's office calls it crass politics

BY TOM HESTER SR.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

In response to Gov. Chris Christie leaving New Jersey without public notification on June 26 to attend a hush-hush conservative Republican event, Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) Friday said she will introduce legislation on Monday requiring that legislative leaders be alerted whenever the governor leaves the state.

“No man is an island, and the governor needs to recognize that he has a responsibility to the people of New Jersey to at least assure for the orderly transfer of power if he does decide to leave the state in search of right-wing campaign donations,” Weinberg said. “If an emergency situation had occurred while he was away, the members of the Legislature would have had to scramble to figure out who they’re supposed to be working with in the front office. There’s more to continuity of services than just following the established line of succession.”

Christie traveled with a state police escort to Vail to give the keynote address at a political fundraiser hosted by David and Charles Koch, oil billionaires and conservative Republican powerbrokers. It was at least the four time Christie left the state since taking office without notifying legislators, the public or the media.

A spokesman for Christie labeled Weinberg’s shaping legislation as “crass politics.”

After the trip became public earlier this month, Christie told reporters he should be allowed a zone of privacy to have time with his family. “You’re not entitled to know everything I do,” he said. “And especially if it’s the weekend and not at taxpayer expense, I’m not telling you.”

Weinberg said Christie’s rationale, for out-of-state travel in order to spend time with his family, fails to adequately answer the need to know when the state’s chief-executive office is occupied by anyone other than the governor.

“Firstly, we know that this was not a family vacation to Disney World, but a political fundraiser designed to further the governor’s national political aspirations,” Weinberg said. “Secondly, governors and other elected officials should realize that public service comes at the cost of some measure of privacy – he’s got to be governor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, not just when it suits him.

“And finally, a simple notification that he will be out-of-state isn’t too much of a breach in his privacy, considering that his leaving affects every aspect of state government and necessitates a successor for the time that he’s gone,” Weinberg added. “He shouldn’t be able to hand over the keys to the kingdom without at the very least giving the Legislature a heads up.”

Weinberg said that notifying legislative leaders would be a compromise between security concerns of publicizing every aspect of the governor’s schedule, his right to privacy, or the public’s right to know about the actions of their elected officials.