New Republican governor takes office in NJ

Governor-elect Chris Christie officially assumes office on Tuesday, inheriting the worst fiscal crisis in the history of New Jersey.


The 47-year-old Republican will take the oath as the 55th governor of the state during a noon ceremony at the Trenton War Memorial. An inaugural mass at Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart precedes the event, and a reception will be held in the evening at Prudential Center. Both morning and evening celebrations are in Newark, Christie's birthplace.

Christie's running mate, former Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno, will also become the first lieutenant governor of the Garden State following the constitutional change last year.

Christie narrowly won a highly contested race against incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine, pulling through despite a number of controversies tarnishing his seven-year record as a prosecutor, including a $46,000 mortgage loan to a former aide he had not disclosed.

He had led in polls but suffered declining support in the final weeks of the campaign. The unpopularity of Corzine, however, proved decisive in a race that had voters jittery over paying the highest property taxes in the country.

Corzine had sought a second term amid a recession, backlash from a July corruption scandal that netted 44 political and religious leaders, and an independent candidate, Chris Dagget, who attracted twice as many Democrats as Republicans.

A former U.S. senator who served as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Corzine spent his last days in office making final appointments and creating a Commission on New Americans to "oversee inter-departmental collaboration regarding immigrant integration policies."

He invited criticism until the end, with New Jersey GOP Chairman Jay Webber issuing a statement last week, "It is appalling that Governor Corzine believes he can expand the size of government yet again, just seven days before he leaves office. The Governor's lame duck efforts to make policy into the Christie Administration - including appointments and now the creation of a new state commission - are an insult to New Jerseyans already suffering from the failures of the Corzine Administration."