Christie picks Monmouth sheriff as running mate

Republican gubernatorial nominee Christopher J. Christie played it safe yesterday with his choice of Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno as a running mate.

Other than to pick a woman, which could help with the party's gender-gap problems, most analysts saw little about Guadagno that would help or hurt Christie's election chances.

"I think it's a very safe pick," said Seton Hall University political scientist Joseph Marbach. "The lieutenant governors can help a little bit, but they can hurt a lot."

People just haven't gotten to know her yet, Christie said last night.

"She is very bright, very aggressive, and very charming with people," he said of Guadagno, whom he has known for eight years. "She is going to be an enormous help in the campaign and in governing."

Guadagno, 50, of Monmouth Beach, has a law enforcement profile similar to Christie's. He is a former U.S. attorney for New Jersey known for securing convictions or guilty pleas from more than 130 public officials.

She worked in the U.S. Attorney's Office, heading the corruption unit between 1990 and 1998. She also served as a deputy state attorney general and teaches at Rutgers University law school.

Appearing with Christie yesterday in Asbury Park, Guadagno asked, "What do you think the politicians in Trenton are going to think when they see two former federal corruption prosecutors leading them?"

This is the first New Jersey election in which gubernatorial candidates will choose their running mates. The lieutenant governor's main job is to take the governor's place if he or she leaves office. The legislature intentionally left the job description vague so that a governor could define a lieutenant's duties.

Democratic Gov. Corzine has until Monday to announce his running mate.

Last week, there was rampant speculation that Corzine would pick Randall Pinkett, a former Rhodes Scholar and winner of the Donald Trump reality show The Apprentice. The campaign never confirmed nor denied that Pinkett was under consideration.

Many expected that Christie and Corzine both would select someone from populous Bergen County, which is known to swing statewide elections. Democratic State Sen. Loretta Wineberg, a tough reformer, is a much-discussed potential Corzine running mate.

Christie's pick does not appear to advance him in any geographical area. Republicans generally win in Monmouth County, and Christie already was expected to do well there in the fall.

"The lieutenant governor pick was not going to bring much to the table anyway," said Monmouth University polling director Patrick Murray.

He likened Christie's selection of Guadagno to former President Bill Clinton's choice of Al Gore for a running mate. Both were Southern Democrats with similar viewpoints.

Guadagno on the ticket cements "Christie's image as an agent of change," Murray said. "He's saying 'Everybody on my team is going to be focused on the same thing.' He's not looking for balance."

Christie said he selected someone who would share his approach to governing. "She's an outsider who's gone after corruption all her career," he said.

They don't agree on everything, though. Guadagno favors abortion rights while Christie opposes abortion except in cases of rape or incest.

"In this first race for lieutenant governor, this pick says something about the candidates because it's the first time," said Sharon Schulman, director of the Hughes Center at Stockton College. In Christie's case, the pick "wasn't imaginative," she said.

On the campaign trail, Christie has said that his lieutenant governor would honcho economic-recovery efforts, starting with cutting regulations that Christie believed hurt business. The lieutenant also would head up Christie's job-retention and -creation efforts by chairing a consolidated economic-development agency.

Guadagno served on the Monmouth Beach Borough Commission between 2005 and 2007 and previously served on its planning board. The 1.1-square-mile beachfront town has fewer than 4,000 residents and a median family income of $93,400, according to the latest available census figures.

Elected in 2007, Guadagno was the first woman sheriff in Monmouth County. She oversees almost 700 employees and a $65 million budget.

As she campaigned for sheriff, she appealed to the right by promising to deport illegal immigrants found guilty of criminal wrongdoing. When she tried to implement part of a federal program that funded local immigration-status checks of prisoners in the county jail, she was met with protests. The federal government has since retooled the program.

According to the state Division of Elections, Guadagno will not have to turn in her sheriff's badge unless she and Christie win the Nov. 3 election.

As a federal prosecutor overseeing the corruption unit, Guadagno took on two of the most publicized cases of the 1990s. She won the conviction of Essex County Executive Thomas D'Alessio on corruption charges, including the charge that he used campaign donations for an Aruba vacation. She also won the conviction of Somerset County Prosecutor Nick Bissell, who then fled to a Nevada hotel room and killed himself.

Guadagno, who grew up in Waterloo, Iowa, is a graduate of Ursinus College and American University law school. She is married to Superior Court Judge Michael Guadagno, who worked in Christie's office for several years.

Corzine has said that he would probably have his lieutenant serve in a dual role by adding a cabinet position to his or her responsibilities. The governor has suggested that he would go for a woman or a minority to "give us a greater degree of including everyone in the political process."

New Jersey will become the 42d state to have a lieutenant governor, a position that almost 30 percent of office-holders in other states have parlayed into governorships.

Age: 50

Address: Monmouth Beach

Occupation: Elected Monmouth County sheriff in 2007. Oversees 695 employees and a budget of $65 million. Responsible for a 1,328-bed jail, a youth detention center, and a police communications emergency-dispatch center.

Previous experience: Former assistant U.S. attorney and assistant attorney general. As deputy director of the state Division of Criminal Justice, she supervised approximately 300 prosecutors and investigators. As an assistant U.S. attorney, she was deputy chief of the Corruption Unit.

Family: Married, three sons.

SOURCE: Associated Press

EndText