Christie's stormy return

Chris Christie's stormy return to New Hampshire

The New Jersey governor trumpets his response to the snowstorm amid questions about his quick return to the stump.

By Kyle Cheney and Daniel Strauss

Chris Christie is touting his handling of this weekend's historic blizzard as another show of his prowess as a crisis manager and reason to make him the Republican nominee. But the New Jersey governor’s political rivals are telling a different story, one of Christie’s hasty return to the stump in New Hampshire while his administration is still determining the extent of storm damage back home.

Jeb Bush's campaign contrasted Christie's decision to return to resume campaigning with Bush's decision in 2004 to skip the Republican National Convention — and his brother's renomination for president — to captain Florida's response to a pair of hurricanes. Former staffers to Mitt Romney pointedly recalled Christie's decision to embrace President Barack Obama in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and right before the 2012 election — which, at the time, helped to burnish Obama's bipartisan credentials, as well as Christie's.

"This is a guy who used storm optics to his advantage in politics for years," said one former Romney aide in New Hampshire. "If anybody appreciates the importance of storm optics, it’s Chris Christie."

The griping was aided by residents and business owners in southern New Jersey, where flooding damaged homes and businesses, who contended that Christie had downplayed the storm's impact when he said New Jersey had "dodged a bullet" and saw little lingering flood damage. Some even contended that the damage was worse than that wrought by Hurricane Sandy in certain pockets of the state.

Christie and his allies dismiss the criticism as exaggerated.

"Any comparisons to Hurricane Sandy are outrageous," he said at a late Monday news conference in Concord, New Hampshire, noting that the areas experiencing flooding over the weekend were largely spared the brunt of Sandy four years earlier.

"I don't really have any clarifying statements except we're doing our job, which is what we were doing yesterday," Christie added. "And there's really nothing else to do for those folks down there except to do the damage assessment and if in fact we qualify for federal disaster assistance, we'll make that application. If we don't qualify for it, we can't."

It's the latest chapter in the intensifying dogfight for New Hampshire voters, engaged most fiercely by candidates seeking to carry the mantle of the Republican establishment as the primary alternative to Donald Trump — who's leading in New Hampshire by a mile — and conservative favorite Ted Cruz. With two weeks to go until the primary, Christie, Bush, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio are looking for any wedge to distinguish themselves in voters' eyes.

Christie initially didn't plan to return to New Jersey, saying he was in touch with state officials by phone. But on Friday afternoon, as the storm bore down, he relented. He stayed in New Jersey all of Saturday and returned to New Hampshire on Sunday, when he talked up his state's response to the storm.

“In my backyard we had over 2 feet of snow. In Newark airport we had over 31 inches of snow. And all throughout the state we had large snows,” he said at a New England Patriots watch party Sunday afternoon. “Yet this morning, New Jersey woke up, roads were clear, the airports were open, everything was back up and running. All but 25,000 people had their power back in the state.”

Christie administration officials noted that the storm dumped more snow on northern New Jersey than expected but also spared southern New Jersey from expectations of more severe flooding. About 100,000 homes lost power at the height of the storm, but most had regained it by Sunday. Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno was dispatched Monday to survey storm damage and she defended the governor's response.

Christie himself noted during the storm that he'd been at the helm during 17 snow emergencies over his two terms as governor.

“We are pleased that today has been such a productive day for businesses and citizens in New Jersey only 48 hours after one of our largest snowstorms in the last six years," Christie said in a written statement issued from his official office Monday afternoon.

Christie has defiantly rejected any suggestion that politics crept into his decision-making during the storm. On Sunday, his campaign released a video with footage of a recent town hall event in which he discusses his leadership of the state after Sandy hit — a moment he said brought him to tears "almost daily."

Queried Monday morning on MSNBC about flak coming his way, Christie disputed the questioner: "I have not seen any of that criticism, and I think you’re just making it up.” And Monday afternoon, the Christie administration began releasing supportive statements from local officials. A Democratic state senator, Jeff Van Drew, alled Christie "extremely supportive" and "responsive to the needs on the ground." Patrick Rosenello, the mayor of North Wildwood, N.J., another hard-hit area, said his town suffered "significant beach erosion" but thanked Christie's office for its support.

"Too much attention has been given to the discussion about whether or not this storm was as bad as Superstorm Sandy," he said. "While locally we did experience tide levels that exceeded the levels reached during Sandy, it is unfair and insensitive to compare the damage we received as a result of this storm with the devastation that impacted our neighbors to the north during Sandy."

But some New Jersey media outlets weren't impressed.

In a Monday afternoon op-ed, the Newark Star-Ledger's editorial page editor Tom Moran ripped Christie as willfully ignorant of the storm damage. "Perhaps it's the stress of the presidential campaign, but the governor seems to be losing his mind," Moran wrote. "He acts as if reality doesn't matter any more."

Bush's campaign argued that Bush faced a similar situation in Florida in late August 2004. Hurricane Charley had pummeled the state earlier that month, and Hurricane Frances was bearing down on the southeastern part of the state just days before his brother, George W. Bush, was slated to accept the nomination for a second term as president at the Republican National Convention in New York. Mark Silva, the White House correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, emailed Jeb Bush privately on Aug. 30 that year to ask why he wasn't in New York. That night, Bush replied.

"We have a lot of work to do," he wrote, describing efforts by schools to reopen after Hurricane Charley. "I will not be going to NYC but in no way should that be seen as a lack of fortitude to work for the Prez's reelection. Now, we have Frances approaching our shores so I will be doing double duty."

Christie spokeswoman Samantha Smith shot back at Bush.

"As a former Governor, Jeb should be commending Governor Christie, his administration and New Jerseyeans for effectively managing their 17th snow emergency. Instead, his team has resorted to petty politics in order to manufacture stories to try and make his record relevant again."

Kasich declined to assess Christie's handling of the storm when asked Monday. "I'm not going there" he said. "If I have to be in Ohio I go to where I need to be."

Even Christie's allies in New Hampshire said the governor needed to get back to New Jersey.

"He is the governor," Renee Plummer, a prominent New Hampshire Republican who endorsed Christie in November, said in an email."I would have been disappointed if he had not returned to New Jersey."