Morris GOP Sees a Strength in Christie

Morris County Republicans are running with the governor this fall.

The Republican candidates are running with Gov. Chris Christie's policies, and on thousands of post cards mailed to Republican voters, with him standing next to them and smiling.

"You run with your governor," said Republican Committee Chairman John Sette.

Christie is a Mendham Township resident and former Morris County freeholder, though his one term in the mid-1990s did not end as well as he might have hoped.

He'd never been seen as one of the county GOP's key insiders, but his governorship has been defined by momentum and boldness—attributes that and energize a party base unenthusiastic for its other choices ().

Before becoming governor, Christie was a popular U.S. Attorney with a  reputation for going after political corruption. As governor, he's taken on the persistent budget issues that have plagued New Jersey—often through controversial strategies that leave voters overall divided, but Republicans resolutely on his side.

"I think there is a halo effect from the governor's actions," said Morris Freeholder Margaret Nordstrom, up for re-election. "His policies have been so visible."

They have also been generally popular, she said.

This week, Patch explores the changing face of Morris County's Republican party in 'Morris GOP: 2011.' Check back throughout the week for more, and return next week for "Morris Democrats: 2011."

In his first two years in office, Christie has cut state spending, enacted pension and health care reform for public workers (savings counties and municipalities thousands in costs) and implemented a tax levy cap that is aimed at slowing the rapid increases in local property taxes.

—earning him plenty of enemies on the left, and leaving moderates debating whether he's refreshingly pragmatic or harsh and heavy-handed in his approach to cutting spending.

It's that approach that's had fiscal conservatives—and anyone who wants to be seen as one—lining up as stated allies.

Republicans running for re-election to state office prominently display the governor's name on their policy statements and websites. They are supporting "Christie's budget." "Christie's energy plan," and "Christie's school reform plan."

Christie in part balanced his state budgets with billions in cuts to state aid for school and towns resulting in loss of thousands of education and public service jobs across the state. The fallout from that is the general endorsement of Democrats for state offices by trade and teachers unions, the groups most affected by the cuts.

But those are not labor groups that generally support Republicans, so the impact of such endorsements might be most important to Democratic leaders like Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Shelia Oliver, who have both lost traditional union support for working with Christie on his budget changes. It may be less of an issue in Christie's home of Morris County, where Republicans reliably win regional and larger races.

While Christie has not been knocking on doors with Morris County Republicans or appearing at public meetings in the county, that might not be necessary in a county as solidly Republican as Morris, said Assemblyman Michael Carroll, who has had public disagreements with Christie's initiatives (, though ultimately the nomination was withdrawn).

The governor hasn't been campaigning in the county, Carroll said. But neither did Gov. Christie Todd Whitman from neighboring Somerset  County.

Morris Republicans have held a long-time registered voter edge over county Democrats.

For the June primary, there were 310,893 registered voters in Morris County. Republicans registered 110,583 voters and Democrats, 68,338, a margin of 42,245.

The dominance of the Republicans has been evident at the board of freeholders, which last had a Democratic member in the mid-1970s.

Nordstrom said while the governor has not been present in Morris County in this campaign, he has made town meeting visits.

Though he was never seen as a power player in the county's Republican leadership structure, it is clear the governor is popular in his home county.

Two years ago, Christie swore into office the new freeholders in front of an audience of several hundred that spilled out of the freeholder's public meeting room into the hallways. He also announced his candidates for state treasurer and community affairs commissioner at press conferences in that same room.

He drew an overflow crowd last year to the public officials forum hosted by the United Way of Northern New Jersey, a crowd that lingered even though Christie was more than an hour late.

Just across the border county in Hopatcong, that would-be attendees were locked out of as the building reached its maxiumum legal occupancy. Christie fans waited out in a cold parking lot with their faces pressed up against the glass.

Nordstrom said the Morris Republicans need to support Christie because while many initiatives they favor have been put in place, many of the elements of the "toolbox"—a list of policy and budget changes that would make it easier to meet a 2 percent cap on year-over-year increases to tax levies—have not been approved.

The key one is reform of the interest arbitration process that usually decides police and fire labor contracts in New Jersey, she said.

Arbitrators are still settling contracts at rates above the 2 percent cap, she said.