New Jersey Senate Race a Referendum on Christie as Unions Back Democrat
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said, “New Jersey has gone for too long and for too many decades ordering things that it can’t pay for.” Photographer/Tim Larsen/Office of the Governor via Bloomberg
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said, “New Jersey has gone for too long and for too many decades ordering things that it can’t pay for.” Photographer/Tim Larsen/Office of the Governor via Bloomberg
New Jersey’s organized labor and major political parties are pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into a special election to serve one year of a vacated state Senate seat, a race that may test the strength of first- term Governor Chris Christie’s attack on employee unions.
Candidates in the 14th District, which includes suburbs of the capital city of Trenton and is home to thousands of state workers, have spent $1.2 million, more than 80 percent of the total for New Jersey’s legislative elections on Nov. 2. The Democrat seeking that seat, Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, raised $937,000 through Oct. 27 with help from unions for teachers and public employees, campaign-finance reports show.
Greenstein faces incumbent Tom Goodwin, the first New Jersey Republican to seek election since Christie won the 2009 governor’s race. Christie has since gained national fame for assailing the cost of public-sector pay and benefits. He isn’t on the ballot until 2013, so Goodwin is drawing the labor attacks in his place, said Statehouse lobbyist Jeff Tittel.
“I think it’s the unions’ line in the sand,” said Tittel, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, which endorsed Greenstein. “If Greenstein loses, they’re going to be in much more serious trouble next year.”
New Jersey, one of two states to elect a governor last November, has special elections in three legislative districts this year. Spending for those races totaled $1.4 million. All 120 members of the Legislature face re-election in 2011.
Christie Versus Unions
Christie, 48, became the first Republican to win a statewide election in 12 years when he beat one-term Democrat Jon Corzine, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. co-chairman.
Since taking office in January, Christie has signed into law pension and benefits cuts for public employees and urged voters to reject school budgets if teachers didn’t accept pay freezes. At an Oct. 26 town-hall meeting in South Brunswick, the governor said he would fire 1,500 state workers next year.
Goodwin, 59, was appointed to fill a vacancy that Christie created in February by appointing Senator Bill Baroni as deputy director of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. Republicans have held that seat, which represents parts of Mercer and Middlesex counties, since Peter Inverso defeated Democrat Francis McManimon in 1991.
Democratic Control
Greenstein is seeking to expand her party’s 23-17 Senate majority and move to the Legislature’s upper chamber. Democrats also control the Assembly, 47-33. Union support accounts for $2 of every $3 Greenstein raised outside Democratic political organizations, finance reports show.
“I think the unions are a little more galvanized than usual,” Greenstein, 60, said in an Oct. 25 interview. “They are really working strongly on this.”
Greenstein contributors include the Communications Workers of America, the biggest state workers’ union; the Service Employees International Union, which represents state and city workers; and the New Jersey Education Association, the largest teachers’ union. Christie accused the association earlier this year of using “students like drug mules” to carry information to their parents on voting for school budgets.
Christie has campaigned for Goodwin twice this month, as well as for Republicans from California to Connecticut as gubernatorial races are held in 37 states this year. In an Oct. 21 letter to party members, the governor said he needs “allies working with me in Congress, and state, county and local government to reduce spending, debt and waste.”
“I’ve worked hard but I’m going to work even harder down the stretch because the stakes are just too high not to be giving it all we have,” Christie wrote.
‘Rough Year’
Christie’s former campaign treasurer, Ronald Gravino, serves the same role on Goodwin’s campaign. Goodwin got $218,000 from state Republican political organizations, of $488,462 raised, campaign finance reports show. Unions gave him a total of $10,900, according to reports filed through Oct. 26.
Public-employee unions in New Jersey typically endorse Democrats. Labor leaders say they are working hard in the 14th District because they are grateful for Greenstein’s support during her 11 years in the Assembly.
“She has been a very good friend to public service,” said Hetty Rosenstein, the CWA’s New Jersey area director. “I think no matter what, we’re going to have a rough year next year.”
“It’s based strictly on their record and their answers with regard to central questions,” said Steve Baker, spokesman for the 178,000-member NJEA. The union is one of seven that gave Greenstein’s campaign the maximum $8,200 allowed, filings show.
Labor Support
The amount Greenstein raised through Oct. 27 included about $516,000 from Democratic state political committees, $27,200 from other lawmakers and $147,850 from organized labor, according to Bloomberg calculations. She reported $56,000 in mailing and printing support from the Democratic State Committee yesterday.
Michael Drewniak, Christie’s spokesman, said he was struck by the level of union support for Greenstein. “That says it all,” he said.
Drewniak declined to comment directly on whether the race would be a referendum on Christie. He said the governor had tried to make a “level playing field” for candidates by issuing an executive order on his second day in office that would have subjected unions to pay-to-play limits on campaign contributions. That was rejected after a court challenge.
“The governor’s support is obviously for Senator Goodwin,” he said.
Goodwin, in an Oct. 27 interview, said he believed the race would be about him and Greenstein, not Christie and the unions.
“People will look at this race as about the economy and jobs, and the race is between us,” Goodwin said.
Assemblyman John Wisniewski, chairman of the Democratic State Committee, said observers shouldn’t read too much into the race. Voters elected 47 Democrats to the Assembly last year as they ousted Corzine, he said.
“The real story would be if there were no union contributions for a Democratic candidate,” Wisniewski said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Dunstan McNichol in Trenton, New Jersey, at dmcnichol@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net
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