Christie comes out swinging
The governor has taken on fights and set battle lines for others.

If there has been a theme to Gov. Christie's first two weeks in office, it has been this: Get ready for a fight, especially when it comes to money.
Christie already has blasted school-spending overruns, mismanagement in local government, high public salaries, and even Atlantic City voters. Executive orders and his first veto were followed by verbal smackdowns that conveyed their message in ways a simple signature cannot.
The governor has set himself up for battle with influential public-employee unions, and on Friday he flouted a long-standing Trenton tradition by skipping the state Chamber of Commerce's schmoozy train ride to Washington with lobbyists and lawmakers.
"The people of New Jersey did not elect me to come here and play nice-nice," Christie said in a recent radio appearance.
Christie promised change. Early on, the differences have been striking.
Last week he blocked a request for more money for an over-budget school project and railed against the $300,000-plus salary of the head of a sewage commission in North Jersey.
In the big scheme, with the state facing an $8 billion to $10 billion budget deficit, these steps were relatively small. Christie doesn't even have the power to set the salary at the commission, which isn't funded by state government. But Patrick Murray of Monmouth University said the symbolism of Christie's initial actions was crucial.
Shining a light on abuses may prevent others from taking place and can help rebuild faith in government, he said.
The spending issue "is so big that it's important to take a small stand. That's something that past leaders have forgotten," said Murray, director of Monmouth's polling institute. "So far, this is what New Jersey is looking for."
Pete McDonough, communications director for former Gov. Christie Whitman, said Christie's opening two weeks had been impressive - "as strong a start as any governor I can remember" - and important. "Power evaporates very, very quickly," he said.
That Christie has been combative is no shock. He made his force of personality a key selling point in a campaign in which he promised to shake up Trenton. But the frequency and ferocity of his salvos have been surprising.
In one 34-minute news conference Wednesday, Christie hit a trifecta, assailing overspending on the Burlington City school project, government waste in Atlantic City, and the $313,000 salary paid to the executive director of the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission.
"If I look envious, it's because I am. That's significantly more than I'm making to do this job, and as challenging as the PVSC may be, I think this baby may be a little harder," Christie said.
The governor is paid $175,000.
After a comptroller's report criticized Atlantic City government for squandering money, Christie said the city leaders' failings were "destroying" business opportunities, and he criticized city voters for electing numerous corrupt leaders over the years.
"How often do you have to get hit over the head with this before you decide that change is necessary?" he asked.
The criticisms came after Christie announced his veto of a $1.3 million change order that would have pushed a Burlington City high school project $18 million over budget.
The veto was intended to show that wasteful spending will no longer be tolerated, he said.
"The old days was, these things just got approved because, you know, previous administrations have thought that there was a bottomless pit of taxpayer money to pay for this stuff, and who cares? Well, we care, and we're not going to put up with it," Christie said.
On Wednesday night, on New Jersey 101.5's Ask the Governor radio show, Christie said small steps told voters, "We get it. We hear you."
The next day, when Christie opened his first cabinet meeting to reporters while much of the Trenton lobbying and lawmaking establishment was on the Chamber of Commerce's train trip, the contrast was the "icing on the cake," McDonough said.
Other New Jersey leaders have made gestures of restraint, but without Christie's gusto.
When his predecessor, Jon S. Corzine, vetoed the contract of a Camden school superintendent because of its bonuses and other perks, he wrote that "the extent of these sorts of benefits in the recently adopted contract renders it unacceptable in my view."
When Corzine ordered his administration to block a hefty payout for a retiring Monmouth County superintendent, he expressed his "outrage" in a news release.
Christie has vented his wrath in news conferences, before rolling recorders and cameras.
Far bigger challenges for Christie's fight-and-change message await as he looks to scale back state spending in the current budget and the one that begins July 1.
With the size of the deficit, and the governor ruling out tax increases, the spending cuts needed will be painful and will surely prompt a backlash.
He has been open about his plans to slash the costs associated with state employees through salary and benefit reductions, staffing trims, or both. On his first full day in office he signed an executive order placing labor unions under the state's pay-to-play laws, effectively limiting the money they can give to elected officials and crippling one of their most powerful tools of influence.
But the unions have experience fighting off criticism with strong organization and a sharp message of their own.
"The biggest test is going to be when he really takes on unions directly with specific proposals," Murray said.
The Communications Workers of America's regional director, Robert Master, said fingers had been pointed at union members for a long time.
"People forget that we rescue abused children, that we change the diapers of people who can't take care of themselves in state institutions, that we keep the state parks running, that we take care of people's licenses at the department of motor vehicles," Master said. "If you really cut those services, people are going to be very, very unhappy."
He said Christie, a Republican, and some Democrats were playing "the politics of resentment" against workers who make an average of $55,000 a year.
Murray said the governor would have to calibrate his message to attack union leadership, rather than rank-and-file members, whose situations are more sympathetic. He will have to use his aggression "judiciously" to avoid coming off as a bully, he said.
There is a risk to picking too many fights, added McDonough, but it may take a long time to reach that point.
"If the last election proved anything," he said, "it was that New Jerseyans are just fed up."