City Journal editor Steve Malanga said New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s less-than-stellar gubernatorial record might not be enough to help his probable push for the Republican nomination in 2016, claiming the governor “underestimated” how much work it’d take to reform the state.
Speaking to MSNBC’s Morning Joe about his new National Review cover story, “Chris Christie’s New Jersey Problem,” Malanga explains how the Christie administration “could’ve achieved so much more.”
“For a very long time he has underestimated just how much work needs to be done to reform New Jersey,” he said. “You remember back in 2012 that he declared that ‘the New Jersey comeback has begun,’ and a lot of us raised their eyebrows at that at the time.”
“This is the kind of state that has all kinds of legacy costs that have built up,” he continued, saying it wasn’t enough to simply cut spending slightly.
He said that though New Jersey is in a “slightly better place” economically, pension problems could reverse much of that by causing a state credit downgrade.
“This is a governor who, when he had been in office for two years in 2012, in a state for all these problems, began considering running for president,” Malanga said. “Reform means really digging in, and already in two years you’re considering running for president.”
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