Talk of Gov. Chris Christie dominated the annual Democratic State Conference in Atlantic City this week.
But not the same way he has in years past.
New Jersey Democrats — for a long time the more powerful state party but in recent years beaten, frustrated and even co-opted by the Republican governor — spoke of a renewed energy their annual conference that wrapped up Saturday morning, as Christie’s political fortunes at home and around the nation are flagging.
“Our spirits are buoyed by Chris Christie’s misfortune,” said Jay Lassiter, a liberal activist. “The truth is, three or four years ago, these things were like a wake. People were struggling to make eye contact and be optimistic. It’s just not like that anymore.”
Even though the upcoming November election is the lowest-profile since 1999, attendance was up from previous years. In 2013, when the governor, state Senate and Assembly were on the ballot, about 200 attendees registered, party officials said. This year, about 500 did – even though it’s only the Assembly at the top of the ticket.
And with the next election for governor two years away, several Democrats — former Goldman Sachs executive Phil Murphy, state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) and Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) — energetically made the rounds and held meetings.
All three also sponsored events at which they gave speeches ripping into the governor, who two years ago was considered the Republican frontrunner for president in 2016 and had an approval rating in the 70s. Now Christie is battered by the George Washington Bridge scandal and bad economic news at home. His approval rating is in the mid to high 30s and he’s considered a long shot for the presidential nomination.
“Nine downgrades. I have to say one thing about this governor,” said Joey Novick, a Flemington councilman and former Hunterdon County Democratic chairman. “He’s made me feel good about my credit rating.”
But not everything is looking up for New Jersey Democrats. One of their two statewide elected officials, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), is facing a 14-count federal corruption indictment. Menendez did not attend the conference and was barely mentioned.
“I don’t think it’s cast a pall on the gathering,” Wisniewski said. “I do think whenever that happens to anybody, no matter what level, it does cast a pall over the process. People become concerned about how it reflects on all elected officials.”
Still, it was a contrast from two years ago, when Democratic factions were fighting and legislative candidates in tough districts were running ads that stressed they were able to work with Christie while distancing themselves from their own candidate, state Sen. Barbara Buono.
This year, Democrats who were critics of Christie when he was aligning himself with top Democratic power brokers like George Norcross and Joseph DiVincenzo wanted to make sure their colleagues remembered it.
“The curtain has been pulled back on the Christie administration. He was given, fairly or unfairly, an inordinate benefit of the doubt in his first couple years on everything he said or did,” Wisniewski said. “There were a number of people, myself included, who at the time said ‘this is not going to work out well.”
Lesniak said that he had called Christie a “fake, a phony and a fraud a long time ago.”
“And now people realize that’s an accurate description of him,” he said.
Most Democrats also credited state Democratic chairman John Currie for helping mend a fractured party. Currie was picked to lead the party when dueling factions led by Buono on one side and Democratic power brokers on the other couldn’t agree on a chairman.
“If you go back to ’13, when every other day was a bad article about Democrats against one another, you don’t see that anymore,” Currie said.
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