{"id":40802235948,"date":"2014-02-02T13:19:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-02T18:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/2014\/02\/02\/true-or-not-wildstein-letter-hurts-christie-2016\/"},"modified":"2021-01-25T11:22:04","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T16:22:04","slug":"true-or-not-wildstein-letter-hurts-christie-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/2014\/02\/02\/true-or-not-wildstein-letter-hurts-christie-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"True or Not, Wildstein Letter Hurts \u201cChristie 2016\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at\u00a0PolitickerNJ<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Former NY\/NJ Port Authority exec David Wildstein claims to know of \u201cevidence\u201d that contradicts Chris Christie\u2019s statements about when he knew of Bridgegate. If true, the governor\u2019s political career is all but over. If false, the governor\u2019s political ambitions have still suffered a serious, and potentially permanent, setback.\u00a0It all hinges on his effectiveness as RGA chair.<\/p>\n

In a letter to the Port Authority, Wildstein\u2019s lawyer states that \u201cevidence exists \u2026. tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures, during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the Governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference [January 9].\u201d<\/p>\n

A Monmouth University\/Asbury Park Press Poll<\/a> conducted in the days after that press conference found that most New Jerseyans did not believe that the governor was being completely honest about when he found out about the George Washington Bridge toll lane closures. In other words, they were willing to cut him some slack if he actually found out about his staff\u2019s involvement earlier than he has told us. However, they did not believe he was involved in the closure decision itself.<\/p>\n

In its initial reaction to the latest charges, the Christie administration parsed the text of the letter and their own response very carefully.\u00a0\u00a0Rather than refer to the governor\u2019s January 9th statements they went back to an earlier press conference, saying that \u201c[a]s the governor said in a December 13th press conference, he only first learned lanes were closed when it was reported by the press.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, the first press report on the lane closures was in a traffic column in The Record published on September 13 \u2013 the last day of the lane closures.\u00a0\u00a0Thus the governor can claim that he never said he did not know about the incident at all \u201cduring the period when the lanes were closed.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0In so doing, Christie\u2019s camp asserts that \u201cMr. Wildstein’s lawyer confirms what the governor has said all along – he had absolutely no prior knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor has proven to be a very accomplished word parser in extracting himself from apparent contradictions.\u00a0\u00a0However, this one is skating very close to the Bill Clinton \u201cit depends upon what the meaning of the word \u2018is\u2019 is\u201d territory.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s not clear how much more parsing the public will accept.<\/p>\n

Are the charges true?\u00a0\u00a0We really don\u2019t know.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s clear that Wildstein has ulterior motives, the most obvious of which is he needs to be able to pay for his defense.\u00a0\u00a0There is an oblique and intriguing reference to Port Authority Commissioner David Samson being copied on prior correspondence but not later correspondence after Samson was implicated in the potential misuse of Sandy recovery funds.\u00a0Is there an implicit threat to the Port Authority in this letter as well?<\/p>\n

While Wildstein enjoyed having a position of power in the Christie administration he was never the Christie loyalist that some in the media have made him out to be.\u00a0\u00a0He is a person who relishes being at the center of the political action, which is what makes him so dangerous to Christie.<\/p>\n

The Christie circle realizes that. Otherwise the administration would not have sent out a scathing email on Friday eviscerating David Wildstein\u2019s veracity. The fact that this email came from one of the administration\u2019s press officers, and not from the campaign or an outside group, is an indication that the Christie camp is more than a little scared.\u00a0\u00a0As well they should be, because true or not, the damage has been done.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s assume that none of the allegations in the letter are true; that no such \u201cevidence\u201d that Christie lied about what he knew ever surfaces. If this investigation peters out in the next few months, Chris Christie has more than enough time to rebuild his reputation before the 2016 campaign gets underway in earnest.<\/p>\n

Christie may even garner some sympathy from conservative Republicans nationwide who are skeptical of his ideology.\u00a0\u00a0Christie can paint this whole episode as a political witch-hunt designed to undermine the GOP\u2019s best hope of winning the White House.\u00a0\u00a0In the long term, Christie can regain his reputation.\u00a0\u00a0But he will suffer short-term hits that will undercut his strategy for 2016.<\/p>\n

First is the Christie persona that he can get things done, even with a legislature controlled by the opposite party.\u00a0\u00a0Even before the Bridgegate scandal hit, there was no expectation that Christie\u2019s second term agenda would be particularly ambitious.\u00a0\u00a0He needed to propose a big idea or two \u2013 that didn\u2019t need to go anywhere \u2013 and focus on balancing a budget without any tax increases.<\/p>\n

He still had some ability to provide some direct benefits to legislative leaders and their allies in the forms of funneling grant money their way, greenlighting charter schools in favored areas, etc.\u00a0\u00a0This would have been enough for him to still hold a strong hand in the budgeting process this year.<\/p>\n

Months ago, the Democratic National Committee began to run web ads on attacking Christie on the lane closures before there was any direct link to his administration.\u00a0\u00a0Powerful Democratic boss George Norcross basically told them to lay off Christie.<\/p>\n

That was then.\u00a0\u00a0Last week, before the Wildstein attorney letter was published, the state Democratic chair issued a scathing letter encouraging his fellow Democrats to hold Christie\u2019s feet to the fire on this.\u00a0\u00a0That letter wouldn\u2019t have been issued without the tacit approval of all factions of the party, including the Norcross wing.<\/p>\n

Why?\u00a0\u00a0The political risks to Democrats own futures now outweigh any of the transactional benefits they may have got from working with Christie.\u00a0\u00a0They can\u2019t afford to be seen as having Christie\u2019s back \u2013 particularly with a contested Democratic primary for governor looming in the near future.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And that is going to make life tough for Christie the leader.<\/p>\n

The other problem for Chris Christie is how these new revelations impact his effectiveness as chair of the Republican Governor\u2019s Association.\u00a0\u00a0There are more than 30 contested gubernatorial contests this year, including key states such as Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.\u00a0\u00a0Gov. Christie was going to be spending a lot of time in these states campaigning with and \u2013 most importantly \u2013 raising money for the GOP candidates in these races.<\/p>\n

There is no question that Christie would have been the biggest fundraising draw any of the candidates will have this year.\u00a0\u00a0And that would mean a lot when it comes time to call in chits for support in 2016 primaries and caucuses.<\/p>\n

This was all part of the Christie team\u2019s grand plan to squeeze out all other \u201cestablishment\u201d contenders for the GOP presidential nomination.\u00a0\u00a0It would leave him alone among a gaggle of conservative true-believers who would split voter support.\u00a0\u00a0This would provide Christie the opening to galvanize moderate support and navigate through the crucial early contests until he became the inevitable nominee.<\/p>\n

The lynchpin in all this was earning the early endorsements of party leaders, both nationally and in the early battleground states.\u00a0\u00a0Christie\u2019s RGA chairmanship would be the vehicle to make this happen.<\/p>\n

As of this now, Republican leaders have not publicly abandoned him.\u00a0\u00a0But these latest charges have made them nervous.\u00a0\u00a0The danger is whether GOP candidates begin to feel that the political risk of being associated with Christie outweighs his fundraising power?\u00a0\u00a0Their elections are this November.\u00a0\u00a0They don\u2019t have time to wait and see if Christie can get clear of these accusations.<\/p>\n

Without a way to earn those chits as the party\u2019s fundraiser-in-chief, Chris Christie will be just one of the pack in 2016.\u00a0\u00a0And these charges, even if they are ultimately proven false, will have done permanent damage to Christie\u2019s presidential aspirations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at\u00a0PolitickerNJ Former NY\/NJ Port Authority exec David Wildstein claims to know of \u201cevidence\u201d that contradicts Chris Christie\u2019s statements about when he knew of Bridgegate. If true, the governor\u2019s political career is all but over. If false, the governor\u2019s political ambitions have still suffered a serious, and potentially permanent, setback.\u00a0It all hinges on his effectiveness […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":939,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40802235948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802235948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/939"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40802235948"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802235948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40802244195,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802235948\/revisions\/40802244195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40802235948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40802235948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40802235948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}