Chris Christie Schedules $24 Million Special Election Two Weeks Before Regular Election, Just to Avoid Higher Voter Turnout Expected in a Cory Booker Bid

Okay, if that's confusing:

Cory Booker will almost certainly run for Senator. He'll probably win.

Now, if he's running on the ticket, there could be higher turnout from black voters and other liberal factions to vote for him. These voters would not be very interested in voting for Christie's Democratic gubernatorial opponent, but, since they're in the voting booth anyway, they'll pull the level for her.

In order to avoid this, Christie has called for a special election to take place a mere two weeks before the normally-scheduled general election. The additional cost of holding this additional statewide election, and statewide primary, a mere two weeks before the already-scheduled one is $24 million.

Christie is claiming that it's so crucially important to get in an elected Senator into that seat that costs just don't matter to him -- and of course he can't wait another fourteen days for the regularly-scheduled election.

"There's no political purpose. The political purpose is to give the people a voice," Christie said. "The issues facing the United States Senate are too important not to have an elected representative making those decisions."

No one believes him, of course. He appears to be completely ridiculous and dishonest. And remember, this was the man who chose to not talk about Mitt Romney at the RNC, but instead took all his time to scold Republicans for not being "straight" with the voters and telling them the truth about matters.

45 minutes of a national convention, already shortened due to a hurricane, were lost so that Chris Christie could lecture us about putting national interests, and fiscal responsibility, ahead of political interests.

And yet here we are.

Again.

I think this ends his 2016 chances. It's year after year with this guy," complained one senior Republican official.

I'm pretty sick of him myself.

I think what he's planning to do is appointing a seat-warming candidate to hold the seat. A Republican, so that he doesn't completely alienate the national party. But not a Republican who can really win the seat, so it's de facto giving it to Booker.

But then again, I'm not sure anyone could beat Booker.

Still, this is all so convoluted and once again about nothing but the political fortunes of Chris Christie.

One thing I don't understand: I didn't think special elections replaced a general election. Usually, it's the case that you stand for a special election, and then the regularly-scheduled one. I guess maybe New Jersey has some special rule that if the Special Election occurs within a month (or so) of the general, then the winning candidate doesn't have to stand again for election?

Good Analysis: Interesting stuff from Guy Benson, even if I don't agree with his conclusion.

If Christie wanted to be political enough to help other conservatives, he could have delayed the special election until November 2014, which also have kept the Booker Surge away from other races. That would have put a Republican in the Senate from NJ for 18 months, too.

But he didn't. Once again he chooses only to help himself.

Which I just noticed Allah said as well:

At the Corner, Robert Costa writes, “Insiders tell me that the November 2014 option was advised as the best course of action by national GOP officials, but Christie decided to go his own way.” Of course he did. As always, when there’s a conflict between what’s best for Christie and what’s best for his party, his interests take precedence.

Christie seems to prefer Lonely Victories-- that is, "victories" in which, of all the people in the party, only he wins.

Such victories are of very limited value. It takes more than one guy to accomplish things.

Chris Christie apparently thinks he's such a major talent he can do it all with a Victory of One.

I don't.

I'm just about all done with him.

Doesn't matter. I imagine he's plotting a third-party bid anyway.

posted by Ace at 05:30 PM

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