Thursday, April 23, 2009

Lunch with Chris Christie



I have never been at ease when it comes to direct involvement in politics. Don’t get me wrong, during a national election I am usually the first person in the neighborhood to put my candidates sign on the front lawn. But I can honestly say I have never been part of any party apparatus or involved in any grassroots political cause. As of today, that is about to change.

Out of the blue my union president called me the other afternoon to invite me to a little luncheon gathering at one of our local diners. The presumptive Republican Gubernatorial nominee former US Attorney Chris Christie was coming to town and wanted to have a skull session with some local cops. While I would normally eschew such a gathering I was moved to attend knowing a) what a mess our current Governor has made of the State and b) what I had learned about Mr. Christie in the last few weeks on the lead up to the primary season. Curious but full of low expectation I went.

The meeting was held in the main dining room of the Peter Pank diner a long time local Route 9 haunt where the proprietor Alex Panko must take the blame for at least a small percentage of my girth. We were met by two of Mr. Christie’s campaign staff who were highly organized and on top of their game. Mr. Christie was on time (an oddity for a man on the campaign trail) and got right down to business.

I have personally met a good number of office seekers over the years. Regrettably I have often walked away with the feeling that I needed a good hot shower to recover from the event. In this case the feeling was quite opposite. Had I picked up enough ribs at the local grocer earlier I would have had him and his staff over for dinner tonight.

He was genuine, honest and was able to look me dead in the eye without making my skin crawl. While I am sure he had a good deal of stops left to make he took the time to let us all say our peace even when it became abundantly clear that we had run well beyond the time where his staff would have liked him to be back on the road. Engaging with a good grasp of what ails New Jersey and with real answers to real problems. I will be candid in that I was not happy with all that he had to say. Like I said, he had answers to all of our questions…..sometimes the answer was no. But the no came with an understandable and reasoned explanation. It was refreshing to be talked to as an adult and not some petulant child which more and more is the common form of address used by those entrenched in the circles of power in Trenton.

What makes it easy to like Chris Christie is that he has taken a lot of the same lumps as the rest of us. While perhaps he has not waded in to a raging bar fight at three in the morning out numbered and ill equipped he has fought the good fight as US Attorney. He knows law enforcement and has a respect for those of us on the lower end of the Criminal Justice food chain. And he honestly has a lot of the same problems (e.g. paying Catholic School tuition in the face of out of control local school taxes). It was refreshing to hash out the dilemmas facing our beloved state in a comfortable argot.

In a way I pity Mr. Christie. I am sure that he will become the next Governor of the State of New Jersey. But he will inherit a hot steaming pile of a mess that has been festering in the Trenton sun since time and memorial. I know he will be able to do the job to make New Jersey well again. I just hope that we are all going to be strong enough to choke down the medicine that is going to cure its ills. It was an honor and privilege to have met him and I will be proud to support his candidacy.

You can learn more about the man and his platform at the link.

NB: Apoligies for the quality of the photo. I had to use my cellphone.

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