In 2009, The Post endorsed Chris Christie for governor of New Jersey despite some skepticism about whether he had a real plan to reform the Garden State.
Four years later, Christie has more than proved substantive reform is possible, even in New Jersey, not least by speaking sense about what the state can afford and pushing through a property-tax cap. And he’s done so in a way that has elevated him into a GOP presidential prospect for 2016.
For these successes — and because New Jersey needs another four years of them — The Post strongly endorses Chris Christie for a second term as governor.
Of all Christie’s achievements, perhaps his biggest is the way he’s changed the political debate: on public unions, on taxes and on education. This is no mean feat in a deep-blue state such as New Jersey.
Christie did it, moreover, by doing what so many other Republicans are afraid to do: by taking on some of the most powerful public-sector unions in the nation. The result was a breakthrough law limiting teacher tenure and expanding charter schools in under-performing districts, the reform of public pension and health benefits and three consecutive budgets that were balanced without increasing taxes.
To do this he needed bipartisan support in the Democratic-controlled Legislature, which he got by winning over (and sometimes out-maneuvering) opposition leaders.
Some think Christie’s interest in a 2016 run for the White House will hurt the state. We disagree. We believe it will only encourage him to use the next few years for even more reform. Certainly New Jerseyans will not get that reform from his Democratic opponent, Barbara Buono, a conventional liberal who is as wedded to tax-and-spend government as Christie is opposed.
The Post encourages voters to pull the lever for Chris Christie on Tuesday — and help him prove that with the right leadership, even an anti-growth blue state can turn itself around.