CHRIS CHRISTIE

Is Chris Christie choosing Donald Trump over NJ?

Bob Jordan
@BobJordanAPP

 

Gov. Chris Christie.

TRENTON – In Chris Christie’s first campaign for governor in 2009, he frequently attacked incumbent Jon Corzine’s out-of-state travel and promised he’d provide greater transparency.

Fast-forward to Christie’s second term: Christie is still criticizing Corzine. At the same time, he’s also keeping residents in the dark about when he’s not in New Jersey and how much time he’s spending on work for presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

More:Chris Christie caught sneaking out of NJ

Christie took a trip to Washington, D.C., Tuesday he intended to keep secret, but he was outed on Facebook by Democratic state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, who was on the same New Jersey-bound Amtrak Acela train.

Christie on the “Ask the Governor’’ radio program on 101.5-FM Wednesday night said his office didn’t notify the public or legislative leaders he’d be away because he had no obligation to. Previously, Christie said he’d be spending more time in Washington on behalf of Trump.

“The rules on this are so clear. They were set by the attorney general at the (2010) beginning of the term. If you’re not going away overnight, or you’re not going to be out of communication for any period of time – so that means air travel mostly – that there is no notification process to the Legislature or the lieutenant governor because I’m available,’’ Christie told host Eric Scott.

But Christie has at best followed that procedure selectively. Christie ignited a partisan uproar in 2011, for instance, when he flew to Colorado to give the keynote speech at a secret retreat hosted by billionaire oil tycoon brothers David and Charles Koch. The trip went unnoticed and unreported for months until the liberal-leaning Mother Jones magazine published audio recordings from the event.

More:Christie says don’t blame Trump for rally chaos

Still, Christie implied on the radio program that he has a better transfer of power protocol than Corzine. Christie is the first New Jersey governor to serve with a lieutenant governor. Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno becomes acting governor when Christie is not available to perform his duties.

What triggers the transfer has become murky as Christie has traveled extensively for several years -- he was outside New Jersey for 261 full or partial days in 2015, after 137 days on the road in 2014 -- but he insisted on the radio show that “the media knows these rules.’’

“And none of them were very vigilant when Gov. Corzine was sleeping every night in New York City and there was no notification to the Legislature that the governor was over there with his then-girlfriend and now-wife,’’ he added.

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Trump recently picked Christie to serve as his presidential transition team chairman.

Christie said he’s started doing that work in his “off time’’ and said the amount of time that will take him out of New Jersey would be “really not much.’’

“The fact of the matter is what you do is put together an extraordinary team. For instance, the Mitt Romney transition team prior to Election Day had 660 employees or volunteers. My job is a management job, a direction job, a policy direction job, but I’ve already started to assemble a topnotch staff from around the country to be able to help direct all that activity,’’ Christie said.

Bob Jordan 609-984-4343, bjordan@gannettnj.com