Pine Tree Politics

Maine Needs A Governor Like Chris Christie

By Matthew Gagnon
March 10, 2010

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Republican Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie has been making a lot of noise lately for doing something that was entirely unexpected: being blunt, speaking truth, and pragmatically dealing with problems that his state is facing.

Christie recently gave a speech to about 200 mayors at the New Jersey League of Municipalities, where he shocked the audience by intelligently breaking down the economic problems the state faces – and in entirely un-sugar coated way, stripping away all the typical flowery, fluffy talk you usually hear from a politician who is simply not trying to rock the boat as he makes a potentially risky move.

His speech to the municipalities was analogous to a friend of your slapping you across the face, calling you out on something you know you shouldn’t be doing, and snapping your brain back to reality by demanding you do “what you need to do”.

This is a very very rare thing among politicians – which is sad, considering how often it produces a world class governor who actually fixes their state (see Daniels, Mitch).  Usually a Governor just tries to keep the trains running on time with as little controversy and blunt talk as possible, to offend the fewest possible people.  The result is often damning, however, as needed reform and change that is by its very nature likely to anger a large base of the population, are not pursued, and the proverbial can is simply kicked down the road, contributing to a much larger crisis down the road.

Maine has had such can kickers in office for almost two decades now.  The Pine Tree State is in dire need of some “straight talk” – somebody to feed us the bitter pill and tell us to swallow.  We need a Governor like Chris Christie, willing to identify and pledge to deal with – with truth and honesty – the problems facing the state.

I beg the next Governor of Maine to approach governing the state with rhetoric like this:

Tags: 2010 Gubernatorial Race