By Michael Aron
Chief Political Correspondent
After two days in New Hampshire, Gov. Chris Christie seemed to have a spring in his step this morning in Sussex County.
“It is mid-May in New Jersey, which means the Legislature is getting ready to come back into town and it’s time to get the budget done. Always a fun time of the year for me, I guarantee you,” he said.
The audience in Sparta got the full range of Chris Christie today.
They got the humor.
“Now some of you may have heard I’m doing town halls in New Hampshire. It’s interesting because, a lot of New Jersey press will follow me up there and they’d say. ‘You don’t go through the four rules in New Hampshire like you do in New Jersey. Why don’t you go through the four rules?’ I say because, New Hampshire is not New Jersey,” he said.
They got the bluntness.
“When you hear the leaders of the Democratic Party stand up over the next six weeks and say the pension payment must be made and we will make no changes in the pension program or health benefit program, then your question has to be, ‘How much do you think you’re gonna get away with taken out of my pocket to pay off your public sector union friends?'” Christie said.
They got the sarcasm.
“They had a protest on the front steps of the State House steps this week — ‘Make the payment!’ Great, happy to, give the money,” said Christie.
And you think the questions at these events are pre-screened?
“Would you please resign and take all your cronies and corrupt attorneys with you?” asked one person in attendance.
“No, I won’t,” Christie responded.
He said he used to bust corrupt politicians as U.S. Attorney but no longer.
“It’s not my job to do this any more. My job is to turn to the law enforcement folks who do these things and do them under the law,” he said.
The argumentative Chris Christie got into a 13-minute exchange on pensions with a retired school teacher.
“We’ve taken it from the police, the fire, the school teachers, the workers. They’re paying more and getting less. The pension benefits have not decreased,” Mark Worobetz said.
“But we haven’t gone after everybody,” said Worobetz.
“Who? Who haven’t we gone after? Do you want me to cut education funding for the kids in schools in New Jersey, which by the way I’m not allowed to do,” Christie said.
“If I took your philosophy when My tax bill comes, I should pay my tax bill like you pay the pension payments. I’ll wait till the end of the year around Christmas time, I’ll sit there look at my check book and go whoa, I don’t have enough money to pay my property taxes. So, I’ll do the Chris Christie. Which we’ll call the Christie clause and it gets me off my payments,” Worobetz said.
“Go ahead and do that,” said Christie.
“Here’s the difference, if I don’t have the money it’s because I didn’t work hard enough. If I don’t have the money is because I didn’t take it from all of you,” Christie said.
Christie was completely on his game today. Perhaps two days in New Hampshire agrees with him. He’s going back Monday.
The governor was in a leisurely frame of mind this morning. On his way out, he stopped to speak to a number of attendees. And he had a good reason to have a one-on-one interview with Michael Aron.