Christie’s Political Move Disappoints Early Mentor

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie seldom makes a political miscalculation. But when the likely 2016 presidential candidate maneuvered to dump Tom Kean Jr. as state Senate Republican leader two days after his reelection, he suffered a rare defeat — and alienated the lawmaker’s father, Tom Kean Sr., a GOP elder statesman and popular former governor who gave Christie his political start.

A week after Kean Jr. rallied enough Senate Republicans to easily rebuff the governor, Kean Sr. still seemed stung.

“I’m as surprised as I’ve ever been in my life in politics,” Kean, 78, said, noting that Christie hadn’t phoned him or Kean Jr.

As Kean and Christie both tell it, Christie was a 14-year-old living in Livingston when his mother drove him to Kean’s house and he knocked on the door.

“‘Sir, I want to get involved in politics and I don’t know how to do it,’” Kean quoted Christie as saying. “I said, basically, ‘I’m thinking of running for governor. If you want to find out, get in the car. I’m going up to Bergen County. Come with me and see if you like it.”

Christie often refers to Kean as a mentor, and Kean has stayed involved in Christie’s ascending career. Most believe the governor was trying to accommodate Stephen Sweeney, the Democratic Senate president who has partnered with Christie on key legislative initiatives.

Kean Jr. helped fund Sweeney’s unsuccessful re-election opponent.

“It was a mistake,” former Democratic governor Dick Codey said of Christie’s involvement. “I didn’t understand it. It didn’t put him in a good light.”

This article appeared in print on page 4 of the November 18th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.