By Charles W. Kim, Managing Editor
NEW BRUNSWICK — It’s official. State Sen. Barbara Buono, D-18, will challenge Republican Gov. Chris Christie in November.
Sen. Buono, of Metuchen, officially began her race to the Governor’s Mansion with a stop at New Brunswick High School on Route 27 Saturday afternoon.
According to the campaign, more than 550 supporters cheered the veteran legislator as she entered the race.
”Today, we all begin our time together to put everyday families back in charge of this state that we all love,” Sen. Buono said to a cheering crowd assembled in the school’s gym. “We’re here today to put an end to the philosophy of, as tired as it is disproven, the notion that our economic problems can only be solved by asking the middle class and the poor to sacrifice more so the rich can become richer.”
Sen. Buono was joined on the stage by a diverse group of about 20 supporters holding campaign signs.
She said that the state’s unemployment rate is two percent higher than it was a year ago and two percentage points higher than the 7.9 percent national average.
”Millions of New Jersey’s families are suffering,” Sen. Buono said.
Sen. Buono said that Gov. Christie has remained beholden to his party continuing to “pray at the alter of his Republican Party bedrock principle of tax cuts for millionaires,” property taxes on homeowners in the state have “soared.”
She questioned his motives and national ambitions, criticizing him for traveling in support of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the recent election cycle and claiming that while he has done many things in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, he has not tackled other important issues in the state.
”For all of this governor’s YouTube moments, for all of his choreographed town hall (meetings), for all his national press appearances and magazine covers, what has he actually done to help me lift back my family up from economic disparity?” Sen. Buono said. “This governor points back to Hurricane Sandy as a primary, if not the solitary reason for you to give him four more years.”
Sen. Buono served on the Metuchen Borough Council for a year before being elected to the Assembly in 1994 and serving seven years, according to her legislative website.
She was elected to the State Senate in 2002.
She was joined at the rally by several powerful Democrats in the state including Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver and Senate President Stephen Sweeney.
”Barbara (Buono) epitomizes (leadership),” Speaker Oliver said. “Leadership is swimming upstream when the current is going a different way. Leadership is the only ‘ship’ that doesn’t return to port during a storm.”
During an appearance on the David Letterman show this week, Gov. Christie said he was not thinking about higher office and or a potential run for the White House in 2016, but just wants to keep the job he loves.
”I’m concentrating on getting re-elected,” Gov. Christie told the television show host during the interview.
