Gov. Chris Christie, who is known for his brash interactions with the public and the press, will not have to contend with either tonight.
Christie, the recently re-elected Republican governor of New Jersey and a likely candidate for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, is headlining the Vermont GOP’s Winter Gala fundraiser at the Champlain Valley Expo.
It’s an all-in-the-family affair. Christie’s whirlwind appearance — he is flying in for the speech via private plane — will not include media access. No photo-op, no press availability, no quick salvo as he enters the Blue Ribbon Pavilion. Nada. And no flesh-pressing with the public of any kind.
Only the 650 guests who have paid $50 to $10,000 to get in the door will be graced by the mellifluous tones of the governor’s New Jersey accent.
Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, who engineered the gala this fall in the middle of a contentious reorganization of the Vermont Republican Party, said his members are “excited to have Chris Christie come to Vermont, especially after his big victory in New Jersey.” (Christie won by a landslide.)
“It’s good for us as a party to see some kind of excitement here, it’s something we haven’t seen for quite some time,” Scott said. “It will be nice to see him in real life and see what he has to say.”
Scott and others in the party hope Christie’s appearance will re-energize GOP moderates and help attract broader interest in the state’s Republican party, which has taken a battering in the last two election cycles. Republicans are now a superminority in the Legislature and their candidates for statewide office — with the exception of Scott — have been trounced.
Though it has been widely reported that the Vermont GOP banned the press, sources say it was the Christie people who insisted on exclusivity for the event. The governor’s staff did not return a call for comment.
If you do a quick Google search of say, “Chris Christie reporter confrontation,” you can see why. Video clips turn up with titles like “Chris Christie rips reporter” and “Chris Christie blasts ‘idiot reporter: Are you stupid.”
The words “respect” and “the press” are apparently words the New Jersey governor has never uttered in the same sentence.
Members of the public aren’t immune to public tongue-lashings from Christie, either. Right before the last election, he got into a verbal brawl with a school teacher.
So perhaps it shouldn’t come as a shock that Christie has spurned the Vermont media and, by association, the public.
Lt. Gov. Scott justified the press banishment as a national-meets-local thing. “To be honest it, it’s a bit foreign for us in Vermont I think, but after looking into it a bit from our end it appears it’s maybe more common nationally at fundraising events and national figures at fundraising events,” he said.
Perhaps what is a surprise is that so many Vermonters — who on the whole fall on the left side of the political column — wanted to see Christie speak in the first place.
Local GOP officials have turned away dozens of Vermonters from the event. Independents, prominent Democrats and Republicans who haven’t been to a party function in years attempted to sign up for the gala. After all, it isn’t every day that a prospective GOP presidential candidate visits Vermont. Romney stayed in Vermont briefly in the last election to prep for a debate, but didn’t deign to make a public appearance. And George W. Bush avoided the state like the plague. (The fact that two towns — Marlboro and Brattleboro — had warrants out for his arrest for alleged crimes against the Constitution related to the Iraq War might have had something to do with it.)
In hindsight, Scott says, he wishes they’d gotten a bigger venue.
The only insider information from the event will likely come from the Twittersphere. Guests are free to tweet, and one of the state’s most famous tweeters — Ed Adrian, a Democrat and former Burlington City Council member, got into the event and GOP officials expect him to work his thumbs throughout the four-hour gala. (The hashtag is #gccvt.)
Beyond the buzz, party officials are also excited about the money. The Vermont GOP expects to gross between $200,000 to $300,000, according to Scott.
In recent elections, the Vermont Republican Party has been weakened in part by a lack of funds, and the Democrats’ ground game has seriously outclassed the GOP’s efforts. State party officials say they hope with six figures in the party’s kitty they’ll be able to prospect for likely voters using new technology.
The Christie gala funds “will go a long way,” according to Rep. Heidi Scheuermann, who helped organize the event.
Scheuermann says using the money to focus on House and Senate seats is a necessity.
“I think we need a sophisticated ground game and tech structure,” she said. “We need to do what’s necessary to ensure we have that ground game and resources available for candidates.”
Scott recounted that Gov. James Douglas had a tough time moving his agenda forward with a Democratic Legislature. The Democrats overrode Douglas’ veto of the budget in 2009. The governor maintained that the gap between state spending and state revenues was unsustainable. “It’s proven to be unsustainable to this day,” Scott said.
“We need to have to have a little more balance in the Legislature before anyone can move the direction of the state,” Scott said. “If you don’t have a group to work with that makes it difficult.”
Is a strong Republican presence in the Statehouse a prelude for his own occupation of Pav 5 (a.k.a. the governor’s office)? Scott won’t say. His next race, he says, is for lieutenant governor.
