Enter the anti-Christie

[DonViejo]

The confrontational governor will be succeeded Tuesday by the diplomatic Phil Murphy.

By MATT FRIEDMAN and RYAN HUTCHINS 01/15/2018 07:21 AM EST

TRENTON, N.J. — On Tuesday, New Jerseyans are trading a scowl for a smile.

Outgoing Gov. Chris Christie, a county-level politician and lobbyist turned tough-guy U.S. attorney, spent eight blustery years as governor taking on teachers, activists and his political foes in Trenton and beyond. Delighting in confrontation, he made himself into a pugnacious national figure, a failed GOP presidential contender and, ultimately, an ally of President Donald Trump.

He’ll be replaced Tuesday by Democrat Phil Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive whose campaign was defined by the diplomatic style he learned as President Barack Obama’s ambassador to Germany — and whose smile is so affixed to his face that some politicos privately mock him for it.

It’s whiplash for New Jersey’s notoriously rough political culture. And not just ideologically, as the state moves from its most conservative governor ever to a man who’s all but pledged to be its most liberal one. New Jersey’s governor is widely considered the most powerful in the nation.

The two men’s political styles are as far apart as can be, from Christie’s prosecutorial confrontation and hard-line negotiating to Murphy’s diplomatic consensus building — at least publicly.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/15/new-jersey-christie-murphy-governor-340490

[padah513]

1. Good riddance

Now I want Governor Murphy to do some serious bookkeeping. Something doesn't add up to me. Not with the pensions, not with the Hurricane Sandy funds, not with the money for the tunnel project back when Christie first came into office.