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 Posted: Wed, May 13 2009, 11:20 pm EDT Post subject: G.O.P. Rivals in New Jersey Tussle in First TV Debate |
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GOP Rivals in New Jersey Tussle in First TV Debate Sign In to E-Mail
DAVID M. HALBFINGER
Published: May 12, 2009
With an unpopular liberal Democratic incumbent awaiting one of them in November, the Republican candidates for governor of New Jersey met in a lively first televised debate on Tuesday night, warning that the state is on the brink of financial collapse and needs a true conservative to take charge.
One of the candidates, Christopher J. Christie, the former United States attorney for New Jersey, accused Gov. Jon S. Corzine of having been “rolled” by legislators and union leaders. Mr. Christie vowed to bring the same forceful leadership to Trenton that he has displayed in prosecuting corrupt politicians and child pornographers.
But while Mr. Christie emphasized his own personality as the remedy for what he called Mr. Corzine’s lack of backbone, his opponent, Steven M. Lonegan, a former mayor of a small town, emphasized his conservative philosophy and promised much more fundamental change. He called for the wholesale demolition of large parts of state government, the layoffs of “at least 15,000” state workers, and an end to what he termed the “immorality and discrimination” of New Jersey’s progressive income tax.
Mr. Christie reserved most of his barbs for the governor, but Mr. Lonegan repeatedly took aim at Mr. Christie. He mocked him for having been a one-term county freeholder early in his career, accused him of shifting his positions, and said his record as a prosecutor — the focus of considerable attention recently for his having awarded no-bid contracts to friends — was dangerously vulnerable to Democratic attack.
It has been 12 years since New Jersey’s Republicans won a statewide race, and the Democratic advantage has only grown in that time, but job losses, yawning budget deficits and above all Mr. Corzine’s abysmal ratings have lifted Republicans’ hopes heading into the party primary June 2. Sensing a winner in November, the party’s moderate establishment and even some prominent conservatives have rallied behind Mr. Christie, 46, who stepped down from the prosecutor’s office in Newark last year after obtaining convictions of some 130 politicians and public employees since 2002.
But Mr. Lonegan, 53, who is mounting a classic insurgent campaign from the party’s right flank, points to his 12 years as mayor of Bogota, in Bergen County, where he cut spending, lowered taxes, antagonized unions and led his outnumbered local Republicans to 11 years of political control.
Much of the hour-long debate, broadcast on the New Jersey Network, was spent on Mr. Lonegan’s turf, as he was questioned by panelists and attacked by Mr. Christie over his proposal of a flat income tax of less than 3 percent. Mr. Christie said the plan would raise taxes on 70 percent of state residents and even more of the elderly, and in the middle of a recession no less.
“That’s why Steve Forbes, the largest advocate of a flat tax nationally, is supporting me,” Mr. Christie said.
“Steve Forbes also endorsed the bailout,” Mr. Lonegan responded, tartly dismissing Mr. Forbes.
The points of agreement between the rivals are likely to provide fodder for Mr. Corzine and his allies in the future. Both Mr. Christie and Mr. Lonegan vowed to veto a gay-marriage bill and, if the question were put to a referendum, to join one another in campaigning against it. They agreed that now was not the time for the state to borrow more money to preserve open space, and that state-financed prekindergarten was a bad idea. Mr. Lonegan endorsed several of Mr. Christie’s health-care proposals, and Mr. Christie echoed Mr. Lonegan’s call for eliminating the state’s Department of the Public Advocate.
But more often, Mr. Lonegan was attacking Mr. Christie for not being pure enough in his adherence to conservative dogma. He called it an infringement on personal freedom for Mr. Christie to want to block people from holding down more than one paid government job, including firefighters or teachers who run for office.
Mr. Christie did not hesitate to punch back, at one point faulting Mr. Lonegan for favoring the elimination of the state’s homestead rebate program, which sends checks to property-tax payers. He called it “the only meaningful tax relief” offered by a state government rife with “wasteful programs.”
“The property tax rebate program is a scam,” Mr. Lonegan replied sharply, saying it had driven up state debt. He vowed to deliver real property tax relief by returning more money to local governments.
Mr. Christie, meanwhile, frequently tried to look past Mr. Lonegan by blasting away at Governor Corzine — though in his telling, it sounded more like a two-headed Democrat named “Jim McGreevey and Jon Corzine.”
“These folks spent too much, they borrowed too much, and they expect all of us to pick up the tab at the end,” Mr. Christie said in opening the debate. He ended it by saying he had proved his doubters wrong as a prosecutor: “If we want to change New Jersey, let’s start by changing governors.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/nyregion/13debate.html |
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