National Republicans wait to help New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in high-stakes showdown with unions

The New Jersey Education Association has spearheaded the attacks on Christie’s policies, accusing him of wanting to cut essential services in his budget.

“New Jersey’s public schools are the best in America,” said Barbara Keshishian, the NJEA’s president, in one of the union’s ads. “But the governor is cutting more than a billion dollars in school aid.”

“These cuts will devastate New Jersey’s public schools, and our students will suffer,” Keshishian said, asking voters to call the governor and “tell him to get his priorities straight.”

The governor has argued that one of the big changes he is making is asking that union teachers pay 1.5 percent of their salary, up from nothing right now.

“If the average teacher makes $55,000, we’re talking $825 annually for full family medical, dental and vision coverage. Less than $69 a month,” Christie said in a speech last week.

“This is not about a fight with individual teachers,” he said. “This is about a union that has decided that everyone they represent is entitled to free medical, dental and vision benefits for themselves and their families from the day they’re hired until the day they die.”

On this year’s budget, Christie actually has a good chance of getting what he wants. The New Jersey constitution gives its governor unusual powers, in particular a line item veto that allows the state’s chief executive to eliminate changes to his budget by the legislature one by one.

“In many states, the legislature would get hold of the budget that’s been trimmed responsibly, all interests would get their piece of the pie back in it, and it would be the same old shenanigans,” Drewniak said. “Here however, we have a governor with a line item veto and he will not allow that to happen.”

As for maintaining public support, radio ads by the New Jersey Republican Party have gone up on the air, but not much else.

“Say ‘no’ to more tax increases,” the radio ad says. “And say ‘yes’ to finally cutting spending. We can get our state back on track.”

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