By Chief Political Correspondent Michael Aron
NJ Today
The messaging was softer than usual at Gov. Chris Christie’s 102nd town hall today in a Baptist Church in an African-American neighborhood in downtown Paterson. Every seat was taken, including in an overflow room.
Christie talked about parenting, leadership and cozying up to one’s enemies. Then came the moment where he opens it up for questions and takes off his jacket.
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A friendly question followed: “Why is it that Republicans in Washington, D.C. do not understand the importance of bipartisanship but you get it?” asked Paterson resident Joseph Purnell.
“There is always a boulevard between getting everything you want and compromising your principles. I don’t ask Democrats to compromise their principles and they know they’re not gonna get me to compromise mine. But my experience is that that boulevard, sometimes it’s more narrow, sometimes it’s broader, but it’s always there,” Christie said.
A board of education member asked why the state is still running the Paterson schools 21 years after a takeover. “When will the state let this community stop being a second class citizen when it comes to education?” asked Jonathan Hodges.
“The state intervened in order to stop the students from being treated like second class citizens,” Christie said. “I don’t want to keep controlling this district a day longer than I have to.”
He then pushed his school choice platform.
“There is nothing that angers me more than going into urban school settings, watching kids fail and looking at parents who say, ‘I have no option, governor,'” Christie said.
A man in the audience shouted out “fix the public schools.”
“You can yell all you want about fix the public schools. Yeah, I hear ya, boy, I hear ya. I hear what you’re saying, but let me tell you something else. What I hear is the despair, I hear the despair of folks all over this state,” Christie said.
Despite that heat about fixing the public schools, this was an unusual town hall meeting in that there was no hard news, no tirades or rants against the legislature or anyone, just 90 minutes of philosophy, positioning and Christie demonstrating his skill at holding an audience.