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The Meehan and Christie show

You had to really want to see Pat Meehan and Chris Christie  Wednesday night—it was raining cats and dogs and the address for the Concordville Inn, “Route 1 and Route 322,” seemed to cover about half of Delaware County. But there we were, anxious to see the Republican candidate for the 7th District and the newly elected New Jersey governor, his friend and former neighboring U.S. Attorney.

Sixty minutes there was enough time to get some good news, some bad news, and an interesting insight into Republican strategy for 2010.

The good news: Thanks partly to Christie’s win, there’s more energy and enthusiasm in the local GOP than I’ve seen in a long time. The party, to be fair, never really reconciled itself to the loss of the 7th—Craig Williams, who was in attendance, ran a credible  race against Joe Sestak, and with Sestak gone (and Republicans in general polling up) the optimism was almost palpable. A sort of “this is our year” feeling permeated the hall in a way that it hasn’t in some time.

The bad news: It’s an enthusiastic but still very, very white crowd. The same people happier, so to speak, rather than new participants. I saw exactly one African-American in the crowd who, on close inspection, looked an awful lot like Joe Watkins, MSNBC commentator and yet another Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor. It may well be true that the party is reaching independents at the ballot box, but they’re not showing up yet at rallies.

What was most interesting was the theme emphasized by both Meehan and Christie in their (thankfully brief) speeches: not abortion or Afghanistan but plain old fiscal prudence and (the most commonly heard term) “common sense.” These are traditional Republican themes, especially in Pennsylvania, but supposedly ones that the party—in debt to Tea Parties and Glenn Beck—was moving away from.

Perhaps Christie’s victory has shown them that this old fashioned, even boring approach was a winner, after all.

On a lighter side, it was interesting to see Christie in person after all the Corzine ads against him. After a season of these ads I half-expected to see Jabba the Hutt be carried in by a bevy of retainers. Turns out Christie is a bit gruff and stocky but nothing like the buffoon portrayed on TV.  Meehan, a former hockey player, looks like he could throw an opponent into the seats. Which, in this environment, he may have to.

December 4, 2009 at 11:44 am

--Michael Livingston

Tags: Chris Christie, Joe Watkins, PA-7, Pat Meehan

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