Chris Christie supporters erupt in cheers at election night headquarters in Parsippany
By Claire Heininger/Statehouse Bureau
Star-Ledger

November 3, 2009

 

PARSIPPANY — The Chris Christie crowd is rejoicing, waving signs in the air for the cameras and spontaneously erupting in whistles and chants of “Christie, Christie.” When independent Chris Daggett came on television to concede the race, they booed him, then cheered when he wished Christie well.

Former Gov. Christie Whitman compared the victory to her triumph over Jim Florio, the unpopular Democratic incumbent, in 1993.

“We have a governor who had raised taxes. The public said, ‘Enough,” Whitman said. “The public is fed up with the kind of record this state has had. We’re 50th in just about everything. The only place we’re Number One is in tax burden, and that’s just not good enough. We deserve better.”

“And people are saying, ‘We’ve seen it before,'” Whitman said. “After Jim Florio, we were in bad shape. We lost 350,000 jobs. We had an unemployment rate that was higher than the national average. And people said, ‘Enough.’ We were able to come in and make a difference, get the state back on track.”