After Gov. Chris Christie’s big moment in the national spotlight at the Republican National Convention, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver told NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider that he will face challenges when he returns to New Jersey and the Democratically controlled legislature. Oliver also said she was upset with some portions of Christie’s keynote address, especially his comments about Democrats not having the right ideas when it comes to pension and benefit reforms.
Oliver’s overall impression of the Republican National Convention in Tampa hasn’t been entirely positive. “I have not extracted a great deal of enthusiasm from what we see on television,” she said. “I have experienced a subdued kind of a flavor there. And maybe that’s because we’ve got so many emerging factions in the Republican Party.”
She said the party has been split with the Tea Party, the right wing conservatives and the moderates. “The moderates stayed home,” Oliver said. “And if you listen to the moderates around the country, they feel that their party is getting away from sensibility.”
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Oliver said the governor missed an opportunity during his keynote address to tell the American people some truths and persuade some of his colleagues since he is considered more of a moderate. “For instance, earlier yesterday we heard from [Rick] Santorum that we have lazy people on Welfare that don’t want to work. Well in New Jersey, we have a 9.8 percent unemployment rate and we’ve been consistent with that,” she said. “People want to work in New Jersey and the governor knows that.”
One of the ideas Christie brought up during his keynote address was bipartisanship. Oliver said he was correct that he needed Democrats’ participation in pension and benefit reform, which she said is a national issue. “Certainly it was through the involvement of myself and Senate President [Stephen] Sweeney and trying to cobble together groups of Democrats who would support that,” she said. “Yes, that would not have happened without bipartisanship.”
Oliver said she was offended by some of Christie’s words, however. He said Republicans have the right ideas and the Democrats don’t, citing pension and benefit reform. “There were discussions about pension reform way before Chris Christie got to Trenton,” she said. “And I remember in 2007 we convened a special session on property taxes and pension and benefit reform.”
She pointed out that Assemblyman Tom Giblin, who she said “is a labor guy” was willing to step out in 2007 to support pension and benefit reform.
Another portion of Christie’s speech that disappointed Oliver was his sentiment that Republicans are for teachers while Democrats are for teachers’ unions. “I think that there has been enough divisiveness created amongst public school educators in this state. And if his battle is with the leadership of NJEA, I think that we need to tone down that rhetoric. NJEA stepped to the plate and worked with Sen. Teresa Ruiz and Pat Diegnan, our assembly chair of education, and they came to the middle on tenure reform,” she said. “I think that it does not behoove us to begin to create this continued fight with the NJEA in New Jersey. But it played well because there is a wing of the governor’s national party that has an abhorrence of unionization no matter where it is.”
Oliver said Christie may face a challenge when he returns to New Jersey because he’s put himself into the national spotlight. “Now if he wants to emerge as a leader within the Republican Party, he’s going to need to be able to have some successes. And those successes may not necessarily come very easily from the Democratically controlled legislature,” she said. “So I think that the governor has a wider divide to fill.”