With photographs circulating of the New Jersey governor and his family enjoying state beaches that are closed to the public, fewer constituents are finding his brashness likable.
The governor and his family were easy to spot on the shimmering Jersey Shore, amid 10 miles of a state beach closed by a budget standoff, even from 1,000 feet above.
Andy Mills, a 6-foot-3-inch photographer for The Star-Ledger, dangled his frame out of a Cessna 152 two-seater and aimed his long lens at what initially looked like just dots on the sand. Following a hunch that with an empty Sunday morning schedule, Gov. Chris Christie might be indulging in some private holiday weekend sun on a beach he had ordered closed, Mr. Mills fired away.
The hunch paid off.
“As we came back up, I’ m looking, I’ m like, that’s him, there’s no doubt in my mind that’s him, ” Mr. Mills said. He peered through his 400-millimeter lens and saw Mr. Christie looking right back at him. “When you make eye contact with someone, both you know and he knows what’s going on.”
Mr. Christie has been adamant that the use of the beach house was his right as governor, and that he was not going to cancel weeks of planning because of the shutdown. But it was yet another self-inflicted indignity, exposed by the media, for a governor who long dreamed of the dignified office of the presidency.
In 2011, photos published by The Star-Ledger caught him using a state helicopter paid for by taxpayers to attend his son’s baseball game. Television cameras recorded him in awkward celebrations in 2015 with Jerry Jones, the owner of the often despised Dallas Cowboys, Mr. Christie’s pale red sweater standing out in the luxury box surroundings.
At the height of his popularity, when he was celebrated at home and nationally as one of the Republican Party’s brightest stars, Mr. Christie easily shrugged off these seemingly damaging episodes, rarely giving any credence to concerns about political optics. Armed with a quick, sharp tongue and a brash sense of humor, his “sit down and shut up” tongue lashings were often praised as authentic and tough.
But now, battered by the George Washington Bridge scandal, a disastrous presidential bid and the lowest approval rating of any governor in state history, Mr. Christie’s continued reliance on biting, defensive humor is less endearing and more enraging.
“His rise to national prominence was that he had this reputation as a fighter, and that when he was fighting he was on the side of the Everyman and the New Jersey taxpayer against the status quo, ” said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist and former senior adviser to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. “I think the danger of the photos is that it undermines that.”
And referring to his approval ratings, Mr. Madden noted, “When you are at 15 percent, you are stripped of your political capital.”
As a firestorm erupted over the beach photos, the governor’s office said that Mr. Christie had been planning “for weeks” to use the Shore house, and that out-of-state relatives were visiting for the Fourth of July weekend.
Still, the images of him enjoying an empty beach, which was empty because the state government was forced to shut down partly over his refusal to compromise, further infuriated his constituents, who were caught off guard on a holiday weekend and whose plans were upended.
The pictures drew immediate ridicule, both from friends and enemies.
“It’s beyond words, ” said Mr. Christie’s lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno, who is also running to replace him. “If I were governor, I sure wouldn’ t be sitting on the beach if taxpayers didn’ t have access to state beaches. We need to end the shutdown now. It’s hurting small businesses and ordinary New Jerseyans.”
