Chris Christie, the blunderbuss bully from New Jersey, is in Arkansas today — Jonesboro — to appear with Asa Hutchinson, the gubernatorial candidate, and also Senate candidate Tom Cotton.
Mike Ross, the Democratic candidate, offered a few choice words of greeting:
Chris Christie, as head of the RGA, is responsible for the slanderous TV ads that have attacked my wife and me – ads that have been proven ‘false and defamatory’ by fact checkers. It should make every Arkansan question Congressman Hutchinson’s character and judgment that he would once again campaign alongside an out-of-state partisan politician who has spent millions on sleazy attacks that smear my wife only to advance Hutchinson’s own campaign.
The Democratic Party takes another tack, noting that Christie will be helping a congressman, Cotton, who voted, one of only 67 Republicans, against disaster aid for his state after Hurricane Sandy. From a Newark newspaper article:
Arkansas Democrats called it “hypocritical” for Christie “to berate Jersey Shore residents who challenge him on Sandy aid one day” and then appear with a GOP candidate who previously opposed aid to the state, said Patrick Burgwinkle, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Arkansas.
“If Governor Christie really values straight talk, he ought to tell Congressman Cotton he was wrong to oppose federal disaster relief that helps families recover from natural disasters,” he said.
A spokesman for the RGA didn’t immediately respond to comment.
Christie on Wednesday embarked on a 19-state campaign tour in the lead up to Tuesday’s elections.
New Jersey’s governor lashed out at the “callous indifference” of House Republicans and Speaker John Boehner in 2013 for putting off a vote on a $60.4 billion package to finance the region’s recovery from Sandy.