On Jul 21, 2009, at 11:44 PM, Tom McG wrote:
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Christopher J. Christie, the Republican candidate for governor of New Jersey, picked a running mate in his own image on Monday, choosing another former prosecutor with a hard-charging reputation both in pursuing corruption cases and in advancing her political career.
Mr. Christie, former United States attorney in New Jersey, named Kimberly M. Guadagno, the first woman elected sheriff of Monmouth County, as his choice for lieutenant governor.
The selection of Ms. Guadagno, 50, like Mr. Christie an outsider to Trenton, suggests that he will redouble his emphasis on reforming state government. In a video posted online Monday morning, he described their ticket as “two candidates who will not shy away from turning Trenton upside down.”
In the video, Ms. Guadagno also echoed Mr. Christie’s complaint about the New Jersey economy under the Democratic governor, Jon S. Corzine. She said she and her husband were raising three sons, but “unfortunately, because of the economy today, they’re not going to be able to stay” in New Jersey.
“They’re going to have to go and find opportunities elsewhere, because this state is broken,” she said.
The Christie campaign may be gambling that Ms. Guadagno will help him with women and others who support abortion rights. While Mr. Christie declared in the Republican primary that he opposed abortion, Ms. Guadagno said Monday that she supported a woman’s right to choose an abortion, though she sees a need to reduce the number performed in New Jersey.
The Corzine campaign nonetheless attacked the new ticket as “completely out of touch.”
“While we applaud Christie for picking a woman, Republicans still have a top of the ticket that will not protect women’s rights in Trenton,” a Corzine spokeswoman, Elisabeth Smith, said in an e-mail message that also mentioned Mr. Christie’s opposition to the state’s paid family leave law.
There is little evidence to predict what effect Ms. Guadagno’s selection will have, since this is the first year New Jersey will vote for lieutenant governor. The job was created in 2005 after two successive governors resigned, leaving the president of the Senate to serve simultaneously as acting governor.
Mr. Christie said in an interview that Ms. Guadagno would oversee economic development and regulatory reform efforts if they are elected. “She’ll be in the room on anything she wants to be in the room on,” he said.
If Ms. Guadagno does play the role of attack dog in the campaign, as is often the case with running mates elsewhere in politics, she will have ample experience in landing and taking punches.
As a candidate for sheriff, she was scolded by a local newspaper for unfair campaign tactics. And she drew criticism from Hispanic groups for vowing to seek federal permission for her deputies to initiate deportation proceedings against illegal immigrants accused of serious crimes. Her department is one of 11 law enforcement agencies nationwide given that permission earlier this month under the so-called 287(g) program, albeit with stricter federal guidelines.
Angel Matos, a Monmouth County leader of the Latino Leadership Alliance, which opposed Ms. Guadagno’s application for the program, said her selection would hurt Mr. Christie with Hispanic voters.
“Our position was, the only real reason she was pushing for this was as a political steppingstone on the back of immigrants,” Mr. Matos said. “And here we are, lo and behold, that’s what’s occurred.”
Ms. Guadagno was deputy chief of the United States attorney’s corruption unit from 1990 to 1998, and prosecuted a former Essex County executive, Thomas D’Alessio, and a former Somerset County prosecutor, Nicholas Bissell. She also led an inquiry into kickbacks involving a former executive of Gtech, the lottery contractor. In that case, she was castigated by a judge for publicizing grand jury testimony. She left the federal prosecutor’s office soon after.
Mr. Christie said he believed that she had done nothing wrong in that case, because the judge “never referred the matter” to the Justice Department or state ethics officials for investigation.
Ms. Guadagno later served as deputy director of criminal justice in the state attorney general’s office and worked in private practice.
Mr. Christie also praised her executive experience. Ms. Guadagno, elected sheriff in 2007, oversees an office with 695 employees and a $65 million budget that says it is the first accredited by the National Sheriffs’ Association in five areas: law enforcement, corrections, correctional health care, emergency dispatch and youth detention.
Ms. Guadagno’s three sons range from 8 to 16. Her husband, Michael A. Guadagno, was a State Superior Court judge in Monmouth but was transferred to Ocean County after her election. They live in Monmouth Beach.
Mr. Guadagno has his own history with Mr. Christie: As chief of the United States attorney’s frauds division before Mr. Christie was named to run the office, Mr. Guadagno started the corruption inquiry that ended the career of Senator Robert G. Torricelli. But Mr. Christie, a few months after arriving, banished Mr. Guadagno to a lesser job in Trenton.
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— On Wed, 7/22/09, reinke, fjohn68 <jasper@reinke.cc> wrote:
From: reinke, fjohn68
Subject: Re: Judge Mike Guadagno MC 1969
To: “Tom McG”
Date: Wednesday, July 22, 2009, 12:04 AM
Tom: I don’t understand. Is Ms. Guadagno married to a Jasper (i.e., Judge Mike Guadagno MC 1969)? Thanks, fjohn68
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That’s it. Mike graduated in 1969.
Tom McGoey
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McGoey Tom (MC1969)
Guadagno, Mike (MC 1969)
[JR: Thanks, Tom. Much appreciated. This is why we need "eyeballs" aka human intelligence aka spies everywhere.]
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