Governor in hot water over private trip to beach he closed
Christie faces backlash as aerial photos catch him at beauty spot which is closed due to a budget standoff
ALREADY suffering the worst poll ratings in New Jersey history, Governor Chris Christie faced blistering criticism yesterday after being pictured basking on a beach he had closed to the public.
Photographs of Mr Christie in shorts, baseball cap and flip flops at the governor’s residence on Island Beach State Park over the holiday weekend were greeted with outrage on social media.
The beach which Mr Christie along with his family and friends enjoyed as temperatures soared was unavailable to everybody else because of a government shutdown in New Jersey.
A budget impasse has led to the closure of all state attractions including 40 parks, recreational areas and historic sites. Additionally, nearly 35,000 workers have been laid off. Campers who had hoped to spend the holiday weekend in state parks were told to leave on Saturday morning.
Mr Christie, who sought the Republican presidential nomination before backing Donald Trump, signed the order limiting state spending to essential services on Friday.
He might have got away with using the beach with his family but a local news outlet decided to fly overhead to
‘That’s the way it goes. Run for Governor, and you can have the residence. I didn’t get any sun today’
grab some aerial shots. They showed a beach, which normally would have been packed, deserted apart from Mr Christie and his small party.
Judging by the drinks cooler, chairs and towels, the group was planning to make the most of the glorious weather.
“That’s the way it goes. Run for governor, and you can have the residence,” Mr Christie said. “I didn’t get any sun today.” His spokesman, Brian Murray, said that the governor spent only a brief time on the beach, adding: “He did not get any sun. He had a baseball hat on,” he told Nj.com.
Mr Christie, whose approval rating has plunged to 15 per cent, is not standing for re-election later this year.
Praised for his response to Hurricane Sandy, which devastated New Jersey in 2012, straight-talking Mr Christie was once seen as a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.
But his White House ambitions were undermined by the Bridgegate scandal, in which members of his administration orchestrated a traffic jam as an act of political retribution against a local mayor who had refused to support the Christie re-election campaign.
New Jersey is facing a partial shutdown because of a budget impasse, along with Maine and Illinois.