Thoughts on the Election of Chris Christie as Governor of New Jersey

1. Thank you, Lord.

2. Thank you, people of New Jersey.

3. On social conservatism. Liberals, strategists, and pundits have told us repeatedly that the Republican party is immolating itself over abortion, gay marriage, gun control, stem cell research, and similar topics. We're not inclusive enough. We're out of step. We'll lose elections because we're only playing to our base, and our base is getting smaller.

This election proves them wrong.

We already had signs that liberal ideology didn't trump anger at excessive spending: Voters' repudiation of Corzine's plan to build stem-cell research facilities comes to mind.

But Chris Daggett's participation in the race proved that New Jersey voters wouldn't reject a good, socially conservative candidate. After all, he hits all the wickets these pundits demand: He's not Jon Corzine, he wants to reduce our tax burden, and he's socially libertarian or liberal. He seems to be the ideal candidate for New Jersey. He was even endorsed by major newspapers. But when voters pushed buttons, he wasn't even close enough to be a spoiler.

This is in a state with 1.8 million Democrats and only 1 million Republicans, which went for Obama by 15%, in a campaign where the incumbent outspent the challenger $24 million to $9 million. [Source: USA Today.] With those demographics, I worried that many New Jerseyans would choose between Daggett and Christie strictly as a protest against Corzine -- and I feared that they'd vote for Daggett. I'm thrilled that they didn't.

I'm not saying Christie won because he's a social conservative, although, as a social conservative myself, I can hope for that. But next time you hear that conservatives are "divisive", destroying their chances of winning, just because they're committed to conservative values? Don't believe it.

4. On the campaign. When then-candidate Obama was attacked for having no executive experience, he pointed to his own campaign as an example of leadership. Many -- me included -- openly mocked him for that. Being able to run a campaign, we said, doesn't mean you can run a country.

But here's the flip side of that coin: I would expect that someone who could run a state could at least run a campaign. This campaign wasn't run very well. Christie didn't communicate enough. As Dennis networked with people to gain insight into the Christie campaign, it became clear that this wasn't just external appearances.

Please, Governor-elect Christie, get your transition team together now and get organized. You have so much to clean up, and it's going to be so hard to do, we need you to be better than you ever were as a prosecutor -- and you were a damned fine prosecutor.

5. On reality. Cleaning up the fiscal mess is going to be hard. By electing Christie, we have asked for something that we know will be painful.

It's like chemotherapy: It's awful, and you choose it only because it gives you hope of survival.

I hope the people of New Jersey have the grit to hang on during the tough, necessary changes ahead.

6. On hope and change. Dennis's last post expresses my own thoughts, so I won't repeat him.

I'll add, though, that "hope" and "change" aren't liberal values. They're the values of good people when they see their state, their country, their community going wrong. Today I'm proud -- not for the first time in my life, mind you -- to be from New Jersey. Yes, we're the butt of a lot of jokes, and Lord knows we deserve a lot of the laughter. But last night we elected someone who has made a difference in fighting that image, and changing the reality behind it. I hope and pray that Christie will make an even stronger difference in his new office than he did as prosecutor.

Godspeed, Governor-elect Christie!

---