This article originally ran March 25, 2009 on politickernj.com
NEWARK – Gov. Jon Corzine and former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie traded punchlines and tweaked each other’s gravitas reflexes tonight at the North Ward Center’s annual Irish-Italian Awards Ceremony and the automatic question is who won?
They could pass each other in a darkened movie theater or in the stands of a ballpark, and still the public demands to know who in an encounter between powerful men appeared cowed and who dominant, who seemed ill-at-ease and who was comfortable in close proximity to the other?
Gov. Jon Corzine, North Ward Center founder Steve Adubato and GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie
Given the stakes here in a roomful of political animals, every rush of laughter came with an attendant undercurrent of expectation as Corzine and Christie occupied the same small space on either side of North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato, Sr., in a vestibule packed with about 100 mostly Democratic Party insiders in the early days of what most believe will be a brutal general election contest between two men who have already passed the low growl stage.
With the likes of former Gov, Brendan Byrne, Senate President Richard Codey (D-West Orange) Democratic State Chairman Joe Cryan, North Ward Director Adrianne Davis, state Sen. Kevin O’Toole (D-Cedar Grove), state Sen. Nia Gill (D-Montclair), Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy and East Orange Mayor Bob Bowser pressed together cheek by jowl, Adubato’s son - public television host Steve Adubato - awarded the budget-saddled Corzine with an oversized calculator and sacks of fake money evidently to help him solve the state’s fiscal crisis.
Amid laughter, the governor tossed one of the bags at Christie in the front row of people who crowded close to the grand old stairs sloping down into the entranceway of the Victorian mansion turned North Ward headquarters.
Since Corzine went first, he used that position to build up to his punchline: “It’s my job to tell jokes, and it’s your job to critique my jokes,” he told Christie.
It was a hot poker in the eye line referencing the Republican candidate’s much-quoted comment on the Brian Lehrer radio show that it’s the governor’s job to craft a budget and Christie’s job as a gubernatorial candidate to critique his budget.
Laughs ensued.
Up next, Amazin’s fan Christie received a Mets cap, a Mets jersey with double O on the back and a framed print of Bruce Springsteen and Clarence Clemons with the words "Born to Run" printed on it - a poke at his political ambition. They also taunted the Jersey guy Springsteen fan by presenting Corzine with a framed doctored portrait of the governor in Asbury Park motley and armed with a Boss Telecaster.
When it was his turn at the microphone, Christie softened up the crowd with some jokes about attorney Angelo Genova and the North Ward Center - and then zeroed in on Corzine.
“I was wracking my brain coming down here with the navigation system down to three minutes and I still couldn’t think of a joke to tell (at the governor’s expense) – so I immediately called Gov. Codey,” Christie said, his voice drowned by the laughs. "Now I have material for the next six months."
It was a soft underbelly jab aimed at a political war wound suffered by the former governor in the more recent annals of Democratic Party lore: that Corzine shoved Codey out of the way to land the Democratic nomination in 2005.
That seemed to be it, and then Christie added, in a reference to the money bag toss from moments earlier, “Tonight has completed my evolution into New Jersey politics. I was the last guy in New Jersey who he hadn’t given money to before.”
As the resident Republican backed up by O’Toole and heretofore incapable as U.S. Attorney of attending this political event despite Adubato’s entreaties for him to come, Christie played the role of earnest outsider, leaving others in their sentimental moments to draw what for him would be a best chance conclusion: that as a Newark native of Italian-Irish heritage, born to a then-factory worker on South Orange Avenue, Christie, regardless of party affiliation, is truly the full deck street player here while Corzine is the interloper.
The typically unflappable Corzine was the gently smiling, goodly patriarch from out of town who’s showered the city – and Adubato’s celebrated low income-serving schools – with enough dollars and affection to proudly burnish the title of ally and, in the end, even in spite of his millionaire credentials - North Ward Democrat. Not for nothing, the center's neighborhood school kids have a favorite saying, which they shout in chorus at Adubato's prompting: "Show me the money."
At risk of appearing unstatesmanlike in the tent show atmosphere, neither man cracked up completely or laughed heartily enough to tear up. Christie in particular seemed intent on erring on the side of seriousness as opposed to jocularity.
Adubato appeared overjoyed standing in the wheelhouse of the two men.
“Steve, you’re on so many sides of the aisle, they’ll have to call you the Octadon,” said Booker, relishing his newfound, Oprafied alliance with Adubato.
“A permanent friend,” Adubato assured Booker, who let the laughter die down before paying the evening’s first let-it-rip-homage to the Irish in his build-up of Newark Police Director Gary McCarthy, who received the center’s Irishman of the Year Award in the form of a St. Patrick statue on a plaque-affixed pedestal.
“One person embodies the change being made here in Newark more than anyone, and that is Garry McCarthy – a great Irishman,” said Booker.
High-power elections lawyer Genova – “Mr. Connected,” nailed down the event’s other award – Italian of the Year, after an introduction made by DiVincenzo Chief of Staff Phil Alagia, who ribbed the star mayor – “I’m surprised you could find the North Ward center. There was nothing in New York or Washington tonight?”
Christie cut out early.
Like a heavyweight champion who leaves the challenger to work up a pre-fight sweat in the ring before he arrives, the governor had bounded late onto the scene, and now he remained through the late rounds – apparently to claim the territory as his own – or so his allies would attest.
Who won?
Maybe it wasn’t about Corzine and Christie - yet.
There’s another piece of theater in the North Ward that consists of Adubato asking anyone around him who the most powerful ethnic group in New Jersey is and the resulting “Three Stooges” looks of bewilderment more often end in the stuttered but safe answer of, “The Italians, Big Steve."
That draws a reproving look from the boss.
“No. No. Dumb. Stop.”
At this point he typically asks who serves as New Jersey’s Senate President, and the answer comes attached to the anxious tone of wanting to make right the earlier wrong answer: “Dick Codey.”
“Right. Who’s the Assembly Speaker?”
More confidence now. “Joe Roberts.”
“Who were the two governors before Corzine?”
“Codey and McGreevey.”
“Codey and McGreevey.” Adubato lets the names hang there momentarily, watching the faces hover around him in expectation before he booms, “Do those names sound Italian to you?” with the lesson driven in there that the Italians are still fighting to be number one, even as Corzine and Christie fight for the same street dog thing.
Max Pizarro is a PolitickerNJ.com Reporter and can be reached via email at max@politicsnj.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
