Reporters Roundtable; #2230; Acocolla, Symon, Doll, Santti, Tamari

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Chris Christie finds a treasurer, hello, shundler, watch out NGEA, and farewell John Corzine. Welcome to reporters' roundtable, I'm Michael Aaron. With us this week for people ready for another governor to scrutinize and psychoanalyze, Michael Simon's of Gennett, New Jersey, Nicarca cell of political facts, the weekly political newsletter, Angela Dela Santi of the Associated Press, and Jonathan Tamari of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Just when it looked like Chris Christie would never find a state treasurer, at least not until after a inauguration day, he came up with Andrew Eristoff, a New Yorker, a tax and budget commissioner under both Rudy Giuliani and city government and George Pataki in state government.

Eristoff has the right background in finance and seems to have the orientation Christie is looking for. When I first entered city government as a member of the city council in New York, we faced enormous deficits, but luckily we had a new leader take over in the mayor's office in the form of Rudolph Giuliani who was able to transform, not only meet that budget cap, but to restore New York City to a state of financial equilibrium and ultimate growth. And I have no doubt that that is what we will accomplish here for New Jersey. Mike Simon's, were you there yesterday at the news conference? I was not Newark. Angela, you were there. I was not. Jonathan, you were there. I was definitely there. What do we know about this guy? We know that he worked under, he was elected to the city council in New York three times, worked under Mayor Giuliani, I believe was commissioner of finance, was his title and then eventually ran the state division of taxation under Governor Pataki. That's about what we know so far.

I mean, he and Christie did say, as you said, that he seemed to have that joint philosophy that as bad as things are, it opens the door to make really drastic changes. I, one second, I just want to flesh him out a little more. He went to Princeton University, that's his only background in New Jersey. His father was the head of EPA region two about 20 years ago. He was Republican municipal chairman of New York City at one point and apparently comes from a lot of money. He's got a very wealthy background. Somebody said he makes John Coursine look middle class. This great, great grandfather was the president of U.S. Steel. Really? Yes. He was Andrew Carnegie's partner. And he has a middle name that might be part of his last name, Sidemen Air stuff. I can't, I don't know whether that's going to stick in, it's a hyphenated last name. Other reactions to this, go ahead. I think this is a pick that everyone was waiting for for quite a long time, given the state's grave financial condition, given the fact that this was a big campaign issue.

And let's face it, if you're in the economic world making a lot of money, what's the incentive to come to New Jersey where you have a couple of months to plug a $9 billion budget hole. So I'm not sure there was a real long line of candidates for this position. So a pretty good pick under the circumstances, a pretty good find under the circumstances? Obviously, very good under the circumstances. I mean, it's obviously a guy who looking forward to the challenge of plugging that hole and... Yeah, he said it. He said whatever we do could be nationally significant. Exactly. You're a comment? Right. I mean, he fits a mold that is typical of other Christie appointees so far. They either seem to have ties to his past in the U.S. attorney's office or to Rudy Giuliani's administration in New York and Christie and Giuliani's CIDI a lot. The former mayor was in New Jersey, so I'm not saying that the former mayor is putting together the administration, but it's obvious that Christie is trying to look for...

I mean, it seems to have to be trying to look for sort of somebody whose example he can try to copy and bring the same thing here. The fact that he's not in New Jersey is notable to me and I was trying to think of past treasurers who were not from New Jersey. I've known some cabinet officers in my time who came from out of state and didn't fare so well, but when I think of treasurers, I think of Ken Biederman and the Cain administration who came from somewhere else. I think Brian Climer maybe came from Pennsylvania in the Whitman administration, although he... They did fine, I guess, at my point. You wanted to jump in? I didn't, Brad Abel. Brad Abel. I believe you. Brad Abel. That's true. It was interesting. I spoke yesterday to Lou Greenwald, the assembly budget chair, about the appointment, and he made a point of emphasizing the fact that the nominee is not from New York. Was that a problem for him or was that... Well, he... He didn't say a plus at the moment.

No, it was not a plus for him. He said he won't understand the residents' pain the way that we do. He won't understand the property tax situation, the way the legislators do. He was kind of using a different argument saying that, listen, as independent as the new governor sounds like he's going to be that his treasury said it's going to have to work with lawmakers. His argument was, we know New Jersey better than the treasure it does. That could be a source of friction, I... I think it's fascinating that when John Corson appointed people to post who didn't live in the state, the Republicans went ballistic. And now, of course, we're getting cabinet members who live in New York, and the Democrats are going ballistic. So maybe we want to cool all that kind of rhetoric and see what kind of job the guy does. Well, to flesh out his economic team, Christy reached to some old hands, Bob Grady, who served in the Cain administration, and in the first Bush presidential administration, and it's really a Californian who recently moved to Wyoming. Where did you lead New Jersey?

And it grew up in Livingston with Christy. Christy is now going to head a new council of economic advisors that Christy said he'll create by executive order, an alcopy veteran business leader who has served in administrations of all parties, or at least two parties, will go back to be the chairman of the E.D.A. and Rich Bagger, of course, as chief of staff, has deep Jersey budget routes. So that's how you make up for your treasures, lack of Jersey experience, does that sound right? He was the chairman of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, not budget. Not budget. A lot of people thought that Grady was Christy's first pick to be the treasure, and for whatever reason that didn't work out, this keeps him involved. I'm sure that Grady will be sort of a tutor for the new treasure to a certain degree and getting him up to speed in the beginning. Grady will go live in Wyoming where he currently lives, Jackson Hole, I believe, but come in frequently for these council of economic advisors meetings, and I was thinking this morning,

you can monitor everything that's going on in New Jersey out in Wyoming on the internet now. It's a modernization of the administration. He's going to telecommute. Right. Let's move on to the next big appointment this week, which was the Education Commissioner. I think many of us were surprised to see that Brett Schundler is Christy's choice to be Education Commissioner. Schundler was the 2001 Republican candidate for governor against Jim McGreevy. He ran for governor again in 2005, but lost to Doug Farrister in the primary. He's known as a pretty conservative guy, favoring sort of right-leaning educational ideas that are anathema to the NJAEA, but he struck a fairly conciliatory note toward the NJAEA when he was introduced this week. Let's hear. I think the NJAEA knows that there are compromises they're going to have to make. Because there is such a strong body of academic research that this is constructive.

When you look at what we see all Davis, Davies put together in the race of the top application, they're not happy with many of those elements, but they also did not have much time to review it all and comment on it all. I think as we have a chance to discuss it, we'll find a way where the relationship can be constructive. What are people saying about this appointment? You could just see the NJAEA ringing their hands over this appointment or this nomination rather. Obviously, they've tangled before in the past when Brett Chandler was the mayor of Jersey City in the 90s. I think he was declared the public enemy number one of the teachers unions, both national and state teachers unions he's taken on. I think Chris Christie has sent unmistakable signals that he's ready to tackle the teachers union, and I think he now has a partner in battle because Brett Chandler has shown the tenacity to take them on as well. And the issues are charter schools, schools choice and merit pay, and well vouchers is choice.

Yes. Well, if they played good cop, bad cop, the way this is sounding, Brett Chandler is sounding like the good cop, and that must send shivers down the spine of the NGM membership. Chandler made a point several times during that press conference of saying that both Democrats and Republicans now are on the same page that there's a national consensus about these educational issues. That Arnie Duncan and President Obama agree with the school choice and charter schools. On the other hand, he's a non-educator himself. He currently works at a place called King's College in New York as chief operating officer, but unusual, if not unprecedented, to get a commissioner of education who's not quote-unquote an educator.

Other comments? As a sign of some of what Chandler was talking about, about Democrats and Republicans having a common ground on this in the state senate, they changed chairs of the Senate Education Committee. And it's now going to be Theresa Ruiz from Steve Adubato's machine, essentially. So if you wanted to signal that the conditions in the senate were going to be changing and be more hospitable to charter school proponents, there it is. But that was done, not for that reason, that was done because Shirley Turner, the former chair of supported Dick Cody in the leadership fight and Theresa Ruiz support Steve Sweeney. Are you suggesting retribution? I'm suggesting rewards. Oh, oh, oh, okay. Okay. But it might reflect still, as Mike said, it still might reflect that there is a changing of the flow, even if it's a second, even if that's a secondary result of the rewards or retribution. There is a changing philosophy among some people at the top there. Governor-elect Christie has said that there are going to be regular cabinet meetings. And Mayor Schundler is known for how shall I put this, length the explanations of things.

I said, by cabinet meetings, they're going to run days. Yeah, I heard somebody predict that there's going to be a clash of egos, eventually down the line with these two, but who knows. There are some pretty sharp egos there. There may be a very smart political move or political strategy for Christie as well. This is a place where he reached during the campaign to try to bring in some urban Democrats who are proponents of school choice and vouchers. And in his continuing to do so, this may be a continuation of him bringing some urban Democrats into the fold. The Reverend Reginald Jackson was at the press conference and spoke enthusiastically about the appointment. Let's move on to other appointments. Governor-elect made a raft of appointments this week. Jim Simpson of New York to run the Department of Transportation, Jim Weinstein, a former DOT commissioner to chair, or to be the executive director at New Jersey Transit, Bob Martin, a campaign advisor of Christie's on energy and environment to be the DEP commissioner.

As we take this, or the morning, we take this, he reappoints Gen Villes to be the Human Services Commissioner, and reappoints Glenn Wreath to be the chief at the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, the Adjutant General, I should say. He names Tom Considine of Met Life to be the insurance commissioner, and I guess late last week, he named Gary Lanigan of New York to be the corrections commissioner. Anything jump out of this list? The thing I found interesting about the Lanigan appointment is that he's not a corrections guy. He's a financial guy. And I think that's going to be a whole mark of this administration in the way it's looking. He's been the budget guy at the MTA, at the MTA, before that at the New York City Department of Corrections, but he's a budget guy. And I suspect you're going to be seeing a lot of that, people are going to be looking at numbers as well as they should, as they're going to have to. Jim Simpson, when last seen in New Jersey, was February 2008 when he was running the Federal Transadministration under President George W. Bush, where he gave a speech, commending

governor, co-resigns, asset monetization proposal. Yeah, really? That'll come up at his confirmation. Probably. Yeah. It will now. Any other comments? I know that I know that Christy took a little bit of heat yesterday about his lack of diversity in his cabinet. And so you saw today his appointment of Jen Vallez, which I think will blunt some of that criticism. There had been mostly white men, but. Yeah, but as he pointed out, the woman's standing next to him, the Secretary of State is a woman, and Paula Dow is an African-American woman, so he had his comeback on that. Let's move on to the farewell address, really, of John Corzine. It was his last date of the state address on Tuesday. The headline in the star ledger, the next day, was graceful exit. I'd add the adjectives in emotional and modest. Let's hear the end of it. No need denying what's obvious.

Every governor wishes he could serve two terms, but I leave you with gratitude, not regret. Continuing the people of this state in the U.S. Senate, and as your governor, has been the highest honor in my life. I didn't accomplish everything I set out to do. I didn't execute the jobs flawlessly. I'm certainly not as quick with a quip as Governor Burm, or as polished a politician as Governor Kane. But I tried, and I hope in some good measure, succeeded in making this state a more humane place for its children and families. And everybody rose to their feet slowly, you know, kind of wave at that moment. Comments on either that passage or the occasion? I would say, I mean, I was there in the chamber, but we sit pretty far in the back, so we could hear his voice, but I was actually struck watching it for the first time seeing

up close, just seeing the emotion as well as hearing it, and it's something that really had not heard or seen from the governor almost ever. Maybe the only time I could think is when he came out of the hospital following his accident, but never on policy, never that way, and it was such a different side in really his last big moment on the stage here in New Jersey. He played well. I think it did. Yeah. He played very well. Was there a good exit for John Coorson? I think it was a very human speech. It's interesting that he was criticized throughout for not being engaged and not connecting with people, and yet on his way out, he seemed to really connect, and he seemed, you know, obviously emotional at not being able to have a second term, which he clearly wanted. And I think that it was also not a typical political speech because he acknowledged responsibility for his shortcomings, and he even poked fun at his failed asset monetization plan, which he sarcastically referred to as glorious, and he called it the elephant in the room at

one point. So I think it was a pretty honest assessment by an outgoing governor. A lot of times the last speech for a governor as a leaving office, whether it's one term or two terms, is, you know, here's what I accomplished, and here's the major issue that I really encourage you all to tackle next. And he did a little bit of that by talking about property taxes some, and, you know, you got to get your arms around state debt. But if you look back at Jim Floreo's farewell speech when he was a one term governor leaving, he talked about his accomplishments in the beginning, and it said, I want to spend the rest of the time talking about property taxes. He issued a warning to the state, right, whereas Governor Coorson spent a small portion of time talking about property taxes, but most of it was in a way a recap of his accomplishments. And he's been saying to us for months complaining that he doesn't feel like people knew what he did. So he essentially used his last moment to, again, make his case. Think about how successful Jim Floreo's warnings were.

The emerging consensus about John Coorson seems to be a good man, no good at politics. I keep reading that more and more now as we're getting some distance. That's absolutely true. I mean, the man's heart was in the right place. He had no sense that politics is how you get, how you achieve your goals in government. That's what politics is. And I don't think he had any sense of that, whereas goal's admirable, sure. And also, in some ways, an Alfred Dublin had a really good column on this in the record I think today. In some ways, just kind of in the wrong place at the wrong time where he had these very big, expansive, progressive ideas, but he came in at a time when people were already tired of paying taxes before he even took office. I think that's right, because I don't think he was that bad at politics. He wasn't. Nick, you're the political guru here. You think he was pretty bad at it? I mean, he went to Washington at a time when the nation was essentially more conservative and had a Republican governor and then had a Republican president, rather.

And then came here to become governor, as Dom is just saying, at a time when people's number one priority was that it's very hard to afford the place at this point. So in that regard, his timing was bad. If he had stayed in the Senate, he, after the turnover that's going to come after this year's elections, would be pretty much, would be right around the middle in seniority at this point. He'd be right around number 50. So he still wouldn't have a committee chairmanship. You know, when he ran for governor, he talked about it. I have to be there until I'm 80 to gain the influence that I would need to get things accomplished. So he saw this as a way to get his progressive policies instituted, and just the timing wasn't great. Let's turn to the new governor who I've referred to here before as a sound bike machine. Very press conference turns into, well, there are a rants, there are criticisms, there's tough speech, there's, it's very refreshing from a press point of view.

It's good sound, as we say, in television. The one that struck me this week came on Thursday after he named the economic team, because it seemed to embody the spirit that he's taking into the inauguration. It was after talking about the state's financial problems and how he's going to be different and he, we're not magicians up here, but we think, and it's not going to be easy, but we think we can do it, let's hear him. I remember you asked me when I first got into the race, Michael, you know, why, why will you have any more luck at doing this than John Corzine? And you got a good memory, so I know you remember the answer, and the answer was because I'm different than John Corzine. And I think all of you will see that, if you haven't already, over the last 11 weeks or the last 11 months, I have a much different style of leadership, and I do believe, and

with this. I've said, and I don't remember who said it years ago, but I absolutely subscribe to this, that a small band of people who are intent upon leading can really change the course of history. And the reason why I'm convinced of that is because we know it's the only thing that ever has. Interesting to me. And you thought? I think it's even greater than what he's saying. I think it's not just that his style is different, I think, that he's playing an entirely different game. He's coming in here, like, this is the new Marshall in town. I think I said in politics this week that it's like everybody's been playing poker, and he walks in and starts dealing pinoccle. He's going to approach this in an entirely different way, confrontational, where he feels confrontation is necessary, conciliatory, maybe, where that's necessary, but, you know,

fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a great ride. It'll be interesting to see if his inaugural address is a little more conciliatory than some of the rhetoric we've been hearing over the past two months on election night. I'm going to turn up side down, but he's made some appointments that, you know, Rich Bagger is not going to turn Trenton upside down. Jim Weinstein and Al Copey are not going to turn Trenton upside down. I wonder if he's going to ameliorate the rhetoric for the inaugural address. Other reactions to this clip here? The time starts now. It'll be very interesting to see how his campaign and post-campaign rhetoric translates into governance and policy making, and I think everyone is, as Nick said, you know, it's going to be an interesting ride, absolutely. And it starts Tuesday.

We'll be able to compare and contrast between Chris Christie and Barack Obama, who both essentially got elected on a change, and we, you know, we really need a lot of change. And then the president got to Washington and tried to use the system to create change. And now, you know, he's sort of struggling a bit in the polls, and he's trying to get, you know, healthcare through. Chris Christie's going to blow up the system, I think, theory. I mean, he said, you know, in my first week, we're going to, you know, we'll see what it means next week, but I'm going to gut COA. And who knows what that'll mean? I guess we'll get to find out. But Christie concedes that for the president, talking about change and then working methodically to deliver it, doesn't necessarily give you a political bang. So he'll try a different thing, and we'll get to see what works better. The parallel between Christie and Obama is they both got elected in part on their ability to speak. Speak.

I heard Christie in the Sacred Heart Cathedral a week or two ago, Steve Adubato's North Ward Center put on a three-kings ceremony for 1,000 kids, and Christie got up to speak, and started talking about the stained glass windows and human ingenuity, and it was all spontaneous and it was all pretty, unlike what we've heard before, a governor on his or her feet reaching that height. We have 15 seconds left. Take it away. That is one of the big differences we just spoke about John Corazon and his struggles with politics. Christie, with his ability to speak, his seeming appetite for confrontation, you kind of see where he might be playing the political angle stronger to deliver the change that he's saying. On that note, we're out of time. Thank you all very much, John, Nick, Mike, Angela. We'll be back with another roundtable next Friday night at 7 and Sunday morning at 10. On this week's edition of On the Record, two of Christie's closest confidants, his former

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You're watching NJN News for Friday, January 15. Two homecomings from earthquake ravaged Haiti today, separate New Jersey church missions won from Mercer County, the other from Warren, both arrived safely. The groups were in the impoverished Caribbean Island nation to assist with various programs when the deadly earthquake hit for the congregations which had worried and prayed over their fate among some 50,000 dead today is a day of relief. Jerry Henry is live in Lawrenceville, where the second group arrived late this afternoon. Jerry, what's the mood there? You might say emotional jam. It was the second group New Jersey delegation to arrive from Haiti after being caught in that earthquake, 14 of them all from Mercer County who say it was a life-changing experience. I feel that if we were still there, we could still be helping the community and helping people find what up ones. I'd like to say that Brittany Bledso, the woman that really helped us out at the US Embassy

was an angel. Can you see bodies strewn?