Christie's Real Formula for Success
How did Republican Chris Christie manage a 22% margin of victory in heavily Democratic NJ? Well, according to the "official" story, its his record of accomplishments, his no-nonsense reformer persona and his bi-partisan reaching across the aisle to get things done way of governing. In reality, he uses intimidation, deal making and tight fisted control over public funds, including billions of dollars of Hurricane Sandy aid from the Federal government, to suppress opposition, insure loyalty and most importantly, create a certain image of himself designed to maximize his chances to be President.
The narrative of Christie as a bi-partisan reformer who can prevail in state like NJ is essential to Christie's political future and the ability of the Republicans to ever win the White House again. They know their message doesn't win on a national level so creating a candidate who appears to have a different message but really supports the right-wing agenda is what they believe to be their ticket to victory. Christie is the perfect vehicle for that plan. But he's not a new type of politician, he's just an old cartoon of a political boss come to life.
Christie is a fiction. He is not really a tough-guy, but he does play one on T.V.! He's a created character who will ruthlessly do anything to promote himself and insure his advancement. This includes using Sandy money designed to help devastated communities recover as a tool to secure loyalty, reward supporters and punish those who don't comply. He'll stop at nothing to quiet dissent, including using disaster aid to further his career.
A recent Star-Ledger article about mysterious lane closings on the George Washington Bridge points out yet another example of his tactics. Christie's political appointees to the NY/NJ Port Authority, the agency that operates the bridge, seem to have taken some steps to teach the mayor of Fort Lee (the town on the NJ side of the bridge) a lesson in loyalty.
Sound crazy or paranoid? Ask any mayor who didn't fall into line with one of the initiatives of the "beloved" governor. Simple funding requests that were routine (and for the benefit of real people) suddenly were rejected. For example, State Department of Transportation aid to pave local roads continued to flow to towns with leaders who praised Christie or supported his policies while they mysteriously dried up for those unfortunate towns whose mayors didn't fall into lock-step. Message discipline, intimidation and arm-twisting is the Christie coin of the realm with the end goal being the creation of a fictional image designed to land him in Washington DC.
This strategy included doing whatever was possible to portray overwhelming bi-partisan support for Christie in NJ. His "large margin" of victory was not all it seemed to be. Check out the map of the NJ Turnout and you will see that something was up in this election. If you don't really know the NJ electorate/population you have to understand where the votes are in the state. Much like the country at-large the geographic distribution of votes isn't even. Here is a map from the 2012 Presidential election. That stripe of dark blue that goes diagonally across the state is where the votes are. Normal turnout in Essex, Hudson, Passaic, Mercer and Camden Counties would have significantly altered the results. Perhaps not enough to change the outcome, but certainly enough to make the election much closer. Instead these counties had record low turnout for a statewide race. Why were all these heavily populated "blue" counties missing in action?
Christie was able to cut deals with the Democratic leadership in the state, aided in no small part by his total control over the distribution of billions of dollars in Sandy aid. Many Democratic mayors in towns that were impacted by Sandy endorsed Christie in the hope/fear of ensuring that needed aid would be directed to their communities. A large portion of the legislative leadership on the Democratic side is backed by the same development/business interests that brought us Christie in the first place. Deals were cut, turnout was suppressed and the Democratic candidate for governor Barbara Buono was left hanging out to dry...by NJ's state Democratic leaders. Why? Its the usual suspects. Money, influence, power and the comfort of knowing they can hold on to their own positions.
No dictator reigns solely on his own capabilities. They need their toadies to prop them up. Hard as it may be to accept, the blowhard in Trenton has a stable of Democratic enablers that support his agenda and inflate his image and power. This is all designed to promote the narrative that will catapult this charlatan to the Republican nomination for President and potentially the White House. Unfortunately he seems to have found a winning formula.
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It looks like they already make it. Maybe Christie can get an endorsement deal.
Let's just hope that his next job is as a talk show host on Faux. 
