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Gov. Christie during a recent New Hampshire town hall-style campaign stop. His out of state travel laying the groundwork for a presidential run and, now, his campaigning, has Democratic legislators seeking to pass a law that would force him -- or any future governor -- to resign from office in order to pursue the Presidency. (AP Photo | Elise Amendola)
(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
TRENTON -- Democratic state lawmakers will soon introduce legislation that would force Gov. Chris Christie to resign from office because he is running for president, NJ Advance Media has learned.
State Sens. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) and Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), who are expected to co-sponsor the bill, said they are fed up with Christie's frequent absences from New Jersey this year in the run-up to last week's announcement that he's running for the White House. The bill would require Christie and any future governor to resign in order to run for president.
"He's not doing the state any good by spending the bulk of his time out of state," Lesniak said. "And even when he's in-state, he's focusing on what he has to do to get elected president -- which often runs contrary to what he ought to do for the state."
Christie has been out of state for more than a third of his second term and more than half of this year.
After announcing his candidacy last Tuesday, the governor immediately went to first-primary state New Hampshire, and stayed there until Saturday. The governor's schedule released Monday said Christie will be out of state on Tuesday, and his campaign confirmed Christie is attending the annual Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, which draws the nation's top media moguls.
Weinberg, who is Senate Majority Leader, called the legislation "a good idea" that was necessary despite Christie's insistence that he is always available by cell phone and email to help run the state.
"That's like saying you can be an absentee parent and still care for your children from out of state," Weinberg said.
The lawmakers noted that because Christie is likely to spend the bulk of his time in New Hampshire over the next seven months to win the first-in-the-nation primary, a fix was required soon.
"We're now not talking about one or two or three days a month," Weinberg said. "Last week, it was almost the full week."
Lesniak said the law was needed because he believes the governor's quest for the presidency has trumped the expressed wishes of New Jersey residents, pointing to the administration's controversial settlement with ExxonMobil for a fraction of what the state had sought to clean up environmental damage to Bayonne and Linden sites as well as the relaxation of gun regulations the night before Christie announced.
A spokesman for Christie, Kevin Roberts, would not respond to the proposed bill, saying in an e-mail: "As is typically the case with pending bills and certainly those that have just been introduced, no comment at this early stage."
A Monmouth University poll released last week found that 76 percent of New Jersey voters believe Christie is more concerned about his own political future than with governing the state, and 57 percent believe he should resign now that he's campaigning for president.
Several states -- Texas, Georgia, Arizona, and Hawaii -- currently have "resign-to-run" laws on the books, but their laws largely apply to state office holders seeking other in-state offices. Georgia's law requires those state officials seeking federal offices like the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to first resign, but makes no mention of candidates for president. Arizona's law requires that state office holders seeking federal office resign their posts, unless they are in the final year of their terms.
The New Jersey legislation would apply to Christie and any other sitting governor who would run for president in the future. The last New Jersey governor to make a run for the White House prior to Christie was Woodrow Wilson in 1912.
Aside from Christie, the Republican presidential field includes one governor -- Bobby Jindal of Louisiana -- with two more expected to jump in later this month: Scott Walker of Wisconsin and John Kasich of Ohio. None has said they would quit their day jobs while running.
Any New Jersey resign-to-run law would require Christie's signature or enough Republicans to join with Democrats to override a veto.
"We could do this in July," Lesniak said. "But the bigger problem is getting the handful of GOP senators that we'd probably need to override him, although I think it would send a good statement regardless. And who knows? Maybe some Republicans would vote for it."
The state's top Republican lawmakers -- state Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick and state Senate Minority leader Tom Kean, Jr. (both R-Union) -- did not return requests for comment on Monday.
Lawmakers have failed to override a Christie veto since he took office in 2010. Last month, Senate Democrats got the support of two Republicans and came within one vote of overriding Christie's controversial "return home New Jersey" program, which aims to force Garden State residents with developmental and other disabilities to reside in-state.
If Christie resigned well before next November's election, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno would take over the office and a special election would be held the same day as the 2016 presidential election.
Lesniak joked that the state Senate might seek to have its resign-to-run billed signed not by Christie, but by Guadagno on a day when Christie was traveling out of state and Guadagno was serving as Acting Governor.
"She has always said that the day that I sign a bill without his approval is my last day on the job," said Lesniak, laughing, "But in this case, that would be his last day on the job. It would be mischievous, although he would do the same thing to us if the shoes were reversed."
Calls seeking comment from Guadagno's office were not returned Monday.
Not all Senate Democrats think the requirement to resign should take effect when a governor declares his intention to run. State Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex) a former governor, said he thought a compromise would be for the law to require a governor to resign only after receiving the party's nomination for president.
Having the law take effect prior to a governor's receiving their party's nomination for president would likely have the unintended effect of having a governor "delay the announcement of any kind of run until the very last minute," Codey said.
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Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com