The Union Leader is New Hampshire’s largest newspaper, and it’s a decidedly Republican one. So its endorsement in the Republican presidential primary tends to get some attention. This year, that endorsement went to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and a columnist from his home state has a few things to say about that. Star-Ledger editorial board member Tom Moran starts by noting that the Union Leader’s endorsements “result in an 11 point bump for the winner, on average,” so the endorsement of Christie is a meaningful one. Which is why Moran is so disturbed that “The paper knows almost nothing about his record as governor.”
The paper has been paying close attention to Christie's speeches in New Hampshire, and his visit to the editorial board. And that's a dangerous game when it comes to a slick character like our governor.
Take Bridgegate. The editorial made no mention of it. "It has nothing to do with the governor," [editorial page editor Grant] Bosse says.
It's possible Christie didn't know about the lane closures or the cover-up. But this is a governor whose cabinet members don't go to the bathroom without his permission. At a minimum, these were his senior appointees.
How about pension reform? The board in Manchester did not know that Christie broke his core promise on that by skipping pension payments. "I don't know if we went into the weeds on pension reform," Bosse said.
The editorial said he "dealt admirably" with Sandy. That would come as a shock to the actual victims, 60 percent of whom say they are dissatisfied with the state's response.
It goes on from there, and it’s brutal. But the thing is, the Union Leader doesn’t care. It’s not like they couldn’t have learned about Christie’s real record in New Jersey. They didn’t do that—or pretended not to have done it—for a reason. This is a Republican editorial board attempting to make a specific intervention in the Republican presidential primary in a key early primary state, looking at the field of candidates and deciding that Chris Christie fits the image of the Republican Party it wants to promote, specifically touting Christie’s type of experience over that of “another fast-talking, well-meaning freshman U.S. senator” or “some well-meaning person from the private sector who has no public experience.” His actual record? Meh. Who cares?