Gov. Christie is on a two-day trip to campaign for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney today.
The governor, who has frequently traveled out of state in recent months to campaign for candidates around the country, defended himself yesterday against criticism of the State Police protection he brings with him on trips. While Republican organizations or the candidates he campaigns for pay his travel expenses, New Jersey still has to pay the security costs, The Record’s Melissa Hayes reports.
“The fact is that if I had a choice about my protection, that would be one thing,” he said at an event yesterday, hours before leaving to campaign for Romney in Ohio. “I don’t have a choice. If I don’t have a choice and I decide to go someplace then they’ve got to go and if there’s a hotel room to be paid for, well we don’t want them sleeping in their cars.”
Christie got some encouraging economic news yesterday. New York’s comptroller said Wall Street profits are on pace to reach $15 billion this year — a figure that could help New Jersey meet Christie’s optimistic revenue projections. An outsized portion of the state’s income depends on the bonuses paid to Wall Street workers who live in the state.
Yesterday’s public event for the governor was in Jersey City, where he visited the Horizon Family Success Center and promoted the 48 other such centers around the state, Melissa Hayes reports.
At that event, Christie said he expects the upcoming $750 million bond initiative to be successful when it meets the voters in November. The bonds, which must be approved by voters, would pay for improvements to the state’s colleges and universities. It is the state’s first bond referendum for capital improvements at the schools since 1988, and it follows a failed 2007 ballot question that asked voters to approve $450 million for stem cell research.
A poll released yesterday found that 48 percent of registered voters said they would vote for the bond, and 34 percent said they opposed it. But the poll also found that 67 percent of voters had heard nothing about the bond.
In North Jersey political news, Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, said he may introduce legislation to force Bergen County police to merge with the county sheriff’s department, according to The Star-Ledger.
John Arvanites — the Democrat running against Republican Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District — told The Record’s editorial board that he wants to resurrect a long-abandoned project to divert Passaic River floodwater through a 20-mile tunnel.
And Assemblyman Robert Schroeder is facing new troubles. Another bank is suing him for an unpaid loan — this one for $500,000 — and two of his businesses have been suspended from working with the U.S. Army.
