NJ Senator and gubernatorial candidate Barbara Buono doesn't want voters to give Chris Christie any credit for dropping New Jersey's appeal to the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage, she told the Briah Lehrer show earlier this week, Darryl Isherwood at NJ.com reports:
"I have six kids and it reminds me of trying to force my kids to eat spinach and they say, 'well, ok, I'll do it, but I don't want to do it, but I am gonna do it. Thanks to our Supreme Court in New Jersey, they denied the Governor's stay for our lower court decision. They basically said in no uncertain terms that he did not have a leg to stand on the merits — so he was really forced to do this….The Supreme Court was very clear if you read their denial of his request to stay the lower court's decision, they said that he has no chance of winning on the merits if it came before the courts. He would have been criticized for unnecessarily spending more state dollars on a losing proposition. He already spent, we don't know how much on the scheduling of this separate election for the United States Senate, anywhere from $12 million to $24 million, just to benefit himself."
Why is Buono keeping on Christie on this?
"I think she is continuing with this because it was one issue in which she was pulling ahead of Christie and it does generate some fundraising traction because this is a hot button issue and it is playing out nationally," said Montclair State Political Science Professor Brigid Harrison. "But to me it is nonsensical because I think it's yesterday's news. There are so many other issues out there that are important to voters and this has effectively been decided."
Christie is up by 26 points in some recent polls.
