Christie Has Questions To Answer When He Returns From Vacation
TRENTON (CBS) - New Jersey's Governor and Lieutenant Governor have been on holiday vacations this week. Given the weekend blizzard, they're likely to face some serious questions when they get back.
New Jersey didn't have a Lieutenant Governor until this year. The state constitution was changed to make sure there was a backup when a governor left office or was unavailable for a long period of time. Instead, it was left to Senate President Steve Sweeney, who was told by Christie during a meeting last week he'd be in charge.
"At the end of the conversation, he said to me, 'I'm going to be out of town. And I said, 'What's that mean to me?' And he said, 'Well, the Lieutenant Governor's out. So you're gonna be the Acting Governor.' And I was like, 'You've gotta be kidding me.'"
It was Sweeney who declared a state of emergency, coordinated response efforts and closed state offices on Monday all due to the blizzard.
Christie is expected back on the job Friday and is likely to face some serious questions about why neither he nor Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno could cut their vacations short for a state emergency.
Reported by David Madden, KYW Newsradio
