Every state and federal election my University’s Political Science Club takes a bus to the campaigning headquarters of the two different parties. This year I decided to jump on the board and get the full on experience. However, this year the professor in charge could not leave until 8 pm, so we could only go to the winning campaigns victory party.
The Bus
The bus was outside of our University’s student center, waiting for all the political science junkies to get excited to go to the Headquarters of non-other than the Governor Re-Elect Chris Christie. It was large and in charge (fitting I know), with comfy seats and TV screens pulled down, reminding me of what real political journalist ride on following their assigned candidate. We figured, as the political science group, that there would really only be other fellow members. What we did not expect was not know the majority of the people on the bus. There were graduate students, undergradrautes and people from the community alike all on board to have a night of political nerdiness. While on the bus waiting for the official call that we all knew was coming, I got the tweet that we were heading to the right party to hear the right Candidate give his acceptance speech.
Getting into the Party
When entering the Asbury Park Convention Hall we all had tickets and ID’s in hand. While waiting a woman working for staff went around informing all the women in the group they could not have a bag bigger than the size of a wallet for security reasons. This my friends is to make sure that no one was carrying in any weapons to such an event as the Governor’s accepting his speech to be a Governor again. Luckily I did not have a bag much bigger than the size of a fist, in preparation for such and ideal, and got in without a problem.
When entering the beauty that is Asbury Park’s Convention Hall, lights were strung from the ceiling, large stages were set up all over the place, and on the now playing signs for the concert announcements that are usually there was the playlist of Chris Christie’s Campaign Party Night. The people in the room, as expected were predominately older, with the few surprises (or maybe not so much) being the young kids in suits and glasses who are still naive enough to be buying into the political candidate and his party’s promises.
There was free booze for anyone over 21; well one free drink with a ticket at the door. So while waiting in line for the bar in anticipation for the victory party to really get going with the Governor’s speech, staff members were walking around with passes to get on stage for the speech, which, of course, we took. We wandered over to the spot that the staff member told us to go to, under a big screen announcing Governor campaigns all over the country and the New York City Mayor’s Race as well. Being truly out of place every time we heard a cheer for a Republican candidate winning and a “booooo” for a Democrat, we stood in amazement of the utter happiness that these people expressed through the winning of a party.
We waited for at least an hour, in a tight space next to the main stage, only to be turned down for getting on it. See at these events they hand out a mass amount of passes to make sure that people actually will be up there when the Governor is speaking. What we did, in fact, notice in the crowd was just who the campaign staffers were handing the passes to: women, people of ethnicity, and the youth.
Anyway, we got placed on the opposite side of the stage, closer to the podium which, for me was lucky, because I was supposed to be live tweeting anyway for The Outlook. However, there was a heater blasting so hard onto us, making me start to feel the burn under my blazer, and that brought up countless Christie is cooking us jokes. After about 20 minutes of roasting, we ditched the oven and found our way back into the side hall with the bars and food.
The bars, however, were closed before the speech even started (which was at like 10… wasn’t this supposed to be a party?) and huge cake of the governor’s mansion was still on display untouched and could feed a family for a year, which was probably just thrown out afterwards. As I spoke with a bar tender working the event she informed me that they didn’t even announce he won. Seriously, is it just sadly that obvious he was going to win that there was no need for announcement?
So as the bar and the room cleared out, Christie started his speech, we made our way back to the floor. We were much further from the stage but also much, much cooler. We were near the press table, which is where I fan girled out watching the professionals type away as Christie spoke, writing up their stories for their publications to make available as soon as possible. It was rad.
His Speech
Now I used to be a proud Democrat. NEVER would have caught myself dead at a Christie event. As I get older and find myself studying more about politicians and following their campaigns, I also started to realize I am not in any specific party. I find the many flaws in way the political parties work and would rather not align myself with such nonsense. The political system is not working when it comes to issue based problems, because there is no sensibility in solving said problems.
As I was listening to Christie speak once again about Sandy, playing up the only real highlight of his political career it made me sick. There are still people whose homes are destroyed, with no money to fix it, and businesses that lost everything in the horrendous storm of Hurricane Sandy. Yet, this man, our “leader” is going to use this tragedy to play up his success, well why the hell not, he used it to get re-elected right?
Also as our leader, reacting as he did during Sandy (which I do give acknowledgement for he acted… well like a leader) was the man doing his job ladies and gentlemen. He did what he was supposed to and that is to take care of the state in a very unselfish and un-bias way. Kudos to you on that Christie, and I would give you more kudos if you stopped talking about how great of a job you did and let us be proud of you. Stop patting your own back; it’s taking away from your actual achievement.
The exploitation of the event for his political gain literally made my eyes roll as he spoke about loving his state and how he was going to fix the problems of our divided government. DUDE you’re the Governor of New Jersey, not a member of the House of Representatives or Senate. You have no influence whatsoever on Washington Politics so you are clearly telling us your future intentions without actually saying it, and then hiding behind the fact that you “love your state.”
After his speech we all found each other and filed back onto the bus to head back to school. Thankfully no one got lost or drunk. All were talking about how some were excited to shake Christies hand (which I mean he could be a future Presidential candidate) while others, like myself, were disenchanted at what was just witnessed. The best part of the ride home was when someone tried to start a 2016 chant, while the people in the back of the bus just stared blankly.
Well NJ, you re-elected this man, I hope that he doesn’t cut too many benefits and screw over more middle class people in the process… no need to fear though because in these next four years his eyes are not on the state, they are on a much bigger prize.
