Subject: Correct The Record Monday January 12, 2015 Morning Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 09:22:23 -0500
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

*​**Correct The Record Monday January 12, 2015 Morning Roundup:*

*Headlines:*

*Wall Street Journal: “Seven Southern States Plan Their Own Super Tuesday
for 2016 Race”
<http://www.wsj.com/articles/seven-southern-states-plan-their-own-super-tuesday-for-2016-race-1421022371>*

“The calendar could be less important on the Democratic side, where Hillary
Clinton is an overwhelming favorite in the polls.”

*PolitickerNJ: Smith jumps onto online petition favoring Warren for prez
<http://politickernj.com/2015/01/smith-jumps-onto-online-petition-favoring-warren-for-prez/>*

"PolitickerNJ has made numerous inquiries of Democrats around the state,
trying to determine if there is any support for Warren or another
alternative Clinton and so far among elected officials or former electeds,
only Smith has stood forth to burnish the mantle of someone not named
Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination for president."

*Fox News: “Sean Penn honors President Bill Clinton at J/P Haitian Relief
event”
<http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2015/01/11/sean-penn-honors-president-bill-clinton-at-jp-haitian-relief-event/>*

“‘I hope we'll be here next year, supporting Bill Clinton's wife running
for President,’ historian/writer Douglas Brinkley, who stepped in last
minute to MC the event in replace of Anderson Cooper, concluded to an
applauding crowd.”

*Washington Post blog: PostEverything: Daniel W. Drezner, senior fellow at
the Brookings Institution: “The campaign reporting tic that I would like to
kill with fire”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/01/12/the-campaign-reporting-tic-that-i-would-like-to-kill-with-fire/>*

“Why are the opinions of 12 Denver residents worthy of so much news
coverage? What utility does a focus group have at this point in the
campaign?”

*Bloomberg: “Romney Upends Bush's Play for Top Dog Status”
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-01-12/romney-upends-bushs-play-for-top-dog-status>*

“Bush's push to win the front-runner title mirrors efforts by Hillary
Clinton’s allies to clear the primary field—although on a far more
compressed timeline.”

*Reuters: “Christie may reach for reset button in New Jersey state of
state”
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/11/us-usa-new-jersey-christie-analysis-idUSKBN0KK0H020150111>*

“Polls have consistently shown former Florida Governor Jeb Bush ahead of
Christie in a potential Republican presidential primary. Voters would also
elect Democrat Hillary Clinton over Christie in the general election,
according to the most recent polls.”

*Articles:*

*Wall Street Journal: “Seven Southern States Plan Their Own Super Tuesday
for 2016 Race”
<http://www.wsj.com/articles/seven-southern-states-plan-their-own-super-tuesday-for-2016-race-1421022371>*

By Beth Reinhard

January 11, 2015, 7:26 p.m. EST

A potential Southern Super Tuesday with as many seven states voting near
the start of the presidential primary calendar could become a pivotal
moment in the 2016 GOP nomination battle.

Georgia’s secretary of state is leading an effort to hold a regional
primary on March 1 next year that could include Texas and Florida, the
nation’s second- and third-most-populous states. Non-Southern states also
could hold elections that day.

The timetable could boost candidates who can afford expensive media markets
and who have ties to the region, among them former Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen.
Marco Rubio , both of Florida, and Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Ted Cruz of
Texas. Mr. Bush and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul , another likely candidate,
also have family ties in Texas that could prove advantageous.

For their rivals, that could add to the importance of winning the earlier
and less-costly contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and
Nevada—states sanctioned by the national parties to lead off the nominating
process.

Texas’ likely vote on March 1 would be one of the biggest changes from
2012, when a court battle over redistricting pushed it to the tail end of
the nominating process.

“Texas will be the 800-pound gorilla in 2016,” said Texas Republican
Chairman Steve Munisteri. “It’s a big, early prize, and it will put a
premium on those that have name recognition in the state, money and a
political base.”

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp said Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi
and Arkansas are on board to join his state for a March 1 primary, “giving
the South more bang for our buck.”

States jostling over their place in line has become as much of a tradition
as presidential candidates going on book tours. But unlike 2008 and 2012,
few if any states so far are jumping ahead of the March 1 starting line,
set by the two parties’ leaders, to boost their clout in the nominating
process, according to Josh Putnam, who writes the FrontloadingHQ blog about
the presidential election calendar.

Florida was a notable scofflaw in both of the last two presidential
elections. In 2012, after it scheduled its primary for Jan. 31, the RNC cut
the state’s bounty of delegates in half and relegated them to subpar seats
and a far-flung hotel at the party’s national convention—even though it was
held on their home turf, in Tampa.

“Our priority is making sure we have all of our delegates, and that all
those delegates go to whomever our grass roots chooses,” said Florida
Republican Party Chairwoman Leslie Dougher. “We are going to be a powerful
force in choosing our party’s nominee in 2016.”

The order of GOP primaries and caucuses could be particularly relevant
because of the prospect of a crowded primary field. The calendar could be
less important on the Democratic side, where Hillary Clinton is an
overwhelming favorite in the polls.

Reasserting Iowa’s traditional influence over the nominating process, the
governing board of the Iowa GOP voted Saturday to continue the party’s
August straw poll, a prelude to the state’s first-in-the-nation caucus.

The poll could be a boon to two former caucus winners considering 2016
campaigns, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Sen.
Rick Santorum , who may lack enough money to compete in bigger states.

Some Iowa Republicans, including Gov. Terry Branstad, had called for ending
the straw poll because of its spotty record of elevating strong candidates.
The 2011 winner, former Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann , came in a distant
sixth place in the caucus. Only two straw poll winners, Bob Dole and George
W. Bush , went on to win the caucuses and the nomination in the following
year.

The general counsel for the Republican National Committee said in a memo
Thursday that the poll is essentially a party fundraiser that doesn’t
violate party rules but “allows professional political operatives to charge
substantial fees to help candidates win what is substantially a media
beauty pageant.”

Iowa Republican Party Chairman Jeff Kaufmann defended the straw poll,
however, as part of the state’s tradition of emphasizing retail politics
over media-driven campaigns. Since 1979, Republican presidential contenders
have tried to demonstrate their organizational strength and popular appeal
at the straw poll, held at a state fair known for its abundance of fried
food and livestock.

“Protecting Iowa and a process that gives regular citizens a voice in
choosing our presidential nominee is job one,” Mr. Kaufmann said.

After the 2012 election, the RNC imposed new rules for the primary calendar
aimed at averting the protracted nominating process that some say weakened
nominee Mitt Romney going into the general election.

The earliest sanctioned contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and
Nevada are to be held this election cycle in February, rather than January.
The party’s national convention will be held as early as June, rather than
in August. The RNC also stiffened the penalties against states that
schedule contests before March.

The confluence of southern states voting early could give a leg up to Mr.
Huckabee and Mr. Santorum, who won the Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee
primaries in 2012. Mr. Huckabee and Ben Carson, another possible candidate,
own homes in Florida.

*PolitickerNJ: Smith jumps onto online petition favoring Warren for prez
<http://politickernj.com/2015/01/smith-jumps-onto-online-petition-favoring-warren-for-prez/>*

By Max Pizarro
January 9, 2015, 2:43 p.m. EST

Count Wayne Smith, former mayor of Irvington, is among those Democrats who
want Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren in the presidential race.

“Just testing to see if the progressive wing of the party is still alive,”
Smith told PolitickerNJ this week, after signing an online petition urging
Warren to challenge former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“Why not?” said the mayor, who lost last year’s election to Mayor Tony
Vauss. “People said the same thing about President Obama when I supported
him in 2004.”

PolitickerNJ has made numerous inquiries of Democrats around the state,
trying to determine if there is any support for Warren or another
alternative Clinton and so far among elected officials or former electeds,
only Smith has stood forth to burnish the mantle of someone not named
Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination for president.

He’s convinced Warren won’t run, however.

Meanwhile, a Democratic source expressed concern about Clinton lacking a
true Democratic rival.

“If i were Hillary Clinton, I’d be looking for an opponent,” said the
source, who argued that most anyone would be a good test – with the
exception of former Virginia Senator Jim Webb, who, the source add, would
be a truly dangerous foe.

*Fox News: “Sean Penn honors President Bill Clinton at J/P Haitian Relief
event”
<http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2015/01/11/sean-penn-honors-president-bill-clinton-at-jp-haitian-relief-event/>*

By Hollie McKay

January 11, 2015

While much of Hollywood lent their voices and wallets in the immediate
aftermath of the tragic 7.0 magnitude Haiti earthquake 2010 that claimed
the lives of at least 150,000 people five years ago, Sean Penn has stuck
with it for the long haul.

The Oscar-winning actor continues to spend more time on Haitian relief
efforts than he does making movies, fronting the J/P Haitian Relief
Organization.

On Saturday evening, Penn rallied famous cohorts including Charlize Theron,
Reese Witherspoon, Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Salma Hayek to honor
former President Bill Clinton at the star-studded 4th Annual Help Haiti
Home Gala, raising $6 million for the cause along the way.

After thanking government officials, former intelligence officials (hint
Valerie Plame), and United States military for their service took the
country, Penn praised Clinton -- who took home J/P HRO's Louverture Medal
of Commitment -- for his relief efforts on the ground.

"(Clinton) sat on a log in the center of a community of 60,000 displaced
Haitians for hours, asking questions…What did they need? How could he
help?... He focused on, and learned about those in need," Penn told guests.
"And he showed them respect, and acknowledged their dignity… As UN Special
Envoy to Haiti, he shepherded more than six billion dollars in
disbursements and debt-forgiveness following the earthquake. Haiti and J/P
HRO are grateful for his commitment."

Penn also pondered "how different" the world would be now if Clinton had
been President during the September 11 attacks.

"Only the U.S. constitution could sideline his presidency... As the
administration that followed squandered the surplus with misguided wars,"
Penn said. "The devastation we face today would have been tempered today if
he (Clinton) had continued as our commander in chief."

The former President was the center of attention at the event, taking
selfies and shaking hands with excited guests.

"Everyone knows politics is just show business for ugly people," Clinton
said with a smile, later stressing the importance for us all not to
"patronize poor people."

"Haitians need investments, education... They don't have the systems we
have in place," he said.

According to Haitian officials, five years after the disaster - which
displaced 50 percent of residents - 95 percent of those left without a home
now have a stable roof over their heads, with many back in their original
neighborhoods. J/P HRO supports residents in the marginalized, high-density
Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Delmas 32 and surrounding areas affected by
the 2010 earthquake transition to resilient, sustainable and prosperous
communities.​

"I hope we'll be here next year, supporting Bill Clinton's wife running for
President," historian/writer Douglas Brinkley, who stepped in last minute
to MC the event in replace of Anderson Cooper, concluded to an applauding
crowd.

*Washington Post blog: PostEverything: Daniel W. Drezner, senior fellow at
the Brookings Institution: “The campaign reporting tic that I would like to
kill with fire”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/01/12/the-campaign-reporting-tic-that-i-would-like-to-kill-with-fire/>*

By Daniel W. Drezner

January 12, 2015, 6:00 a.m. EST

So I see that over the weekend, the mainstream media, including the New
York Times, Slate and other “Gang of 500″ members, have stories about what
Democratic pollster Peter Hart discovered in a focus group in Denver. For
now, let me excerpt from The Washington Post’s Dan Balz, who does as good a
job of reporting on it as anyone:

“A dozen Denver-area residents spent two hours dissecting the state of the
country and its politics. The 12 participants — Democrats, Republicans and
independents — are weary of political dynasties. They were dismissive,
sometimes harshly, in their assessments of [Jeb] Bush, the former Florida
governor. They were also chilly toward former secretary of state Hillary
Rodham Clinton.

“When the name of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was introduced into the
conversation, however, many of those around the table, regardless of party
affiliation, responded positively. To this group, who spoke in stark terms
throughout the evening about the economic challenges of working Americans,
Warren has struck a chord.

“The two-hour session, moderated by Democratic pollster Peter Hart for the
Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, turned
upside down much of the conversation about the coming presidential
campaign, where Bush and Clinton occupy so much space.”

The fact that this focus group got coverage across the entire political
press corps suggests that it must have been newsworthy. As a political
scientist, however, I have to ask the necessary follow-up question: Why are
the opinions of 12 Denver residents worthy of so much news coverage? What
utility does a focus group have at this point in the campaign?

Balz, to his credit as a reporter, offers up a coherent answer:

“It is important to emphasize that this was simply one group of 12 people.
They are not necessarily a representative cross section of the entire
population, any more than a dozen donors or a dozen strategists would be.
But as with all recruited focus groups, the collective impressions and
individual observations provide a valuable counterpoint to the conversation
that is taking place among political insiders [emphasis added].”

So what are some of these observations and impressions? Some highlights
from Balz’s article:

“When Charlie Loan, an IT program manager and Republican-leaning
independent, said half-seriously that he would be happy if Congress would
pass a law banning anyone named Bush or Clinton from running, half the
people in the room agreed. . . .

“Most of the prospective presidential candidates were only vague figures to
these Coloradans. When names such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) or Gov.
Scott Walker (R-Wis.) or Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) or Mike Huckabee, the
former Republican governor of Arkansas, were raised, many indicated they
didn’t know enough to have even a superficial impression.

“Of those in the Republican field, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) drew positive
comments, not necessarily because the members of the group know that much
about him, but because they find him new and intriguing.

And from Dickerson’s article in Slate:

“Charlie Loan, an IT manager, says he voted the straight conservative line
most recent election but he’d listen to what Warren had to say. ‘The little
I have seen and heard from her, she seems genuine.’

“Despite his ideological affiliations, [Democrat Andrew Regan] was happy to
see Republicans in control of Congress. ‘I’m happy to see that Republicans
took Congress. Instead of a ‘Do Nothing’ Congress we have a ‘Do Something’
Congress.’”

So, to sum up: The members of this focus group knew exceedingly little
about almost all of the 2016 potentials, and liked the possible candidates
about whom they knew the least. They also don’t appear to know that much
about what happens when different political parties control the legislative
and executive branches. The overall impression one gets from this focus
group is that these people are politically uninformed.

Now, lest one think I’m mocking the knowledge of salt-of-the-Earth
Americans, let me be clear in stating that they really shouldn’t be paying
too much attention to the 2016 race at this point. The first primaries are
a year away. The roster of possible candidates remains very much in flux.
These people have busy lives. Why bother devoting any attention to possible
2016 candidates now?

No, I’m not angry at the uninformed voters — as I’ve said before, they
might be ignorant, but they’re rationally ignorant.  No, my ire is directed
at the political press that reports this stuff. The fact that this focus
group got such wide play suggests that there’s a consensus that Hart’s
findings are a big deal.

But as Balz, Dickerson et al honestly report, it’s just 12 uninformed
voters talking to one another. Sure, they have opinions, but they’re also
uninformed enough for those opinions to be extremely malleable. There’s no
way to generalize from them to the broader electorate, so any narrative
that’s ginned up from such a focus group is a false one. These uninformed
impressions will change as the 2016 campaign generates more news coverage,
primary debates, candidate announcements, policy positions, and even gaffes
and gaffe responses. Uninformed voters don’t become fully informed voters —
but even small scraps of information can turn a politician with a blank
slate into a politician with a distinct brand.

At this point, about the only focus group that would interest me would be
if Peter Hart or Frank Luntz gathered together diehard party activists in
Iowa or New Hampshire to see what they thought about the possible
candidates. Because, right now, it’s the activists who matter, not swing
voters.  By the time swing voters start to pay attention, the narrative
about the major candidates could look very different.

And if you think that’s not true, remember that, at this point in the 2008
cycle, Rudy Giuliani was the GOP front-runner.

At this stage of the 2016 campaign, the invisible primary stage, I’m very
interested to see if candidates are gearing up campaign staffs, boning up
on foreign policy briefs, securing bundlers and wooing activists. Focus
groups like these just remind us that most American voters aren’t paying
attention just yet. Drawing any other conclusion from the opinions of 12
people strikes me as nuts.

*Bloomberg: “Romney Upends Bush's Play for Top Dog Status”
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-01-12/romney-upends-bushs-play-for-top-dog-status>*

By Lisa Lerer and Annie Linskey

January 12, 2015, 5:45 a.m. EST

[Subtitle:] The former Florida governor's plan was a long shot anyway,
after shifts in fundraising and Republican Party coalitions.

The former Florida governor's plan was a long shot anyway, after shifts in
fundraising and Republican Party coalitions.

Jeb Bush's shot at clearing, or substantially winnowing, the Republican
presidential primary field was always going to be a hard play. Now, it
seems to have backfired.

Mitt Romney's surprising message on Friday to supporters that he's
considering a third run was a direct response to Bush's moves to roll up
the party's strongest aides, strategists, and fundraisers before other
establishment candidates could even get into the campaign. Even if Romney
doesn't get into the race, his comments send a powerful signal to such
prospective candidates as Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Florida
Senator Marco Rubio that the party's 2012 presidential nominee is convinced
a Bush candidacy is flawed and there is room for other players in the
primary.

The former Massachusetts governor isn't the only would-be presidential
contender unlikely to be intimidated by Bush. Sweeping changes in the way
campaigns are financed, shifting coalitions within the Republican Party,
and a palpable desire among activists to find a fresh-faced nominee who can
inspire the party and the nation in their quest to beat the Democrats may
conspire to upend his plan. “We're in an environment where lesser-known
candidates have proven that it's not necessarily money, right away, that
will put them at the finish line,” Republican Senator Cory Gardner of
Colorado said.

Two Republican strategists all but dared Romney to join Bush in the race,
calculating that more competition for the establishment mantel creates
greater space for a challenger from the right. “The immediate beneficiaries
from this new Romney revelation? Car elevator builders, Cadillac stocks and
of course ... Rafalca,” said Hogan Gidley, referring to Ann Romney's
Olympic horse. Gidley worked on the campaigns of conservative talk-show
host and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in 2008 and former
Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum in 2012.

Doug Stafford, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul's chief political adviser, rolled
out the red carpet. “As Senator Paul has said previously, the more the
merrier,” he said.

Bush's push to win the front-runner title mirrors efforts by Hillary
Clinton’s allies to clear the primary field—although on a far more
compressed timeline. Within months of Clinton leaving the State Department
in 2013, four outside groups declared themselves devoted to her potential
candidacy and formed a sort of campaign-in-waiting. “A lot of people feel
like this is Hillary Clinton's time,” said Jim Demers, a New Hampshire
Democrat who backed President Barack Obama in 2008. “There's not a lot of
oxygen left in the room.”

But as Romney’s remarks showed, Bush, who last ran for office 13 years ago,
doesn't have the same sway over the Republican Party as Clinton is wielding
over Democrats. If anything, his announcement only encouraged a more
aggressive response from potential opponents, who now feel intensified
pressure to demonstrate their own strength. “I don't think [Bush] will run
anybody out of the race but it does mean that they have to get started
earlier to compete," said Charlie Black, a Republican lobbyist who advised
the Bush family and Romney.

Weeks before he announced publicly that he was thinking of a forming a
presidential committee, Bush had already begun gently pressing
donors—including some key backers of Romney's campaigns—for commitments.
Romney, too, has kept in touch with his backers, dispatching long-time aide
Spencer Zwick for meetings with donors last month, according to supporters
who weren't authorized to talk publicly about the early organizing. They
pushed Romney to make a decision about a run, a choice the former
Massachusetts governor’s advisers say he’ll make in the next 60 days. A
third presidential run would mark a striking reversal for a man who has
twice lost bids for the White House. “My time on the stage is over, guys,”
he said to family and close aides as he prepared his concession speech in
2012, according to footage in the documentary “Mitt.” “We're done,” added
his wife, Ann.

While Bush and Romney have always been cordial, they’ve never been close.
Some Romney advisers are still grumbling about Bush’s role in the 2012
campaign. Despite calls, e-mails, and private meetings with Romney before
the hard-fought Florida primary, Bush endorsed Romney in March—nearly two
months after the state’s contest and when the nomination was already within
the former governor's grasp. A few months later, in the midst of the
general election, Bush criticized Romney's approach to the immigration
issue, saying at a Bloomberg View event that he needed to “change the
tone.” “He got off message,” said Bush of Romney's campaign in an interview
last month with a Miami television station. “He got sucked into other
people’s agenda.”

In private conversations, Romney has questioned Bush’s ability to beat
Clinton, arguing that voters would recall her husband’s administration in a
far more positive light than that of former President George W. Bush. He’s
also warned that Bush, who spent his post-office years working on a range
of business ventures, could be open to the same type of private equity
attacks that Democrats successfully leveraged against Romney in the 2012
race.

On the other side of the ideological spectrum, Bush's decision to eschew
party orthodoxy on immigration, gay marriage, and education leaves some
possible challengers seeing an opportunity to run to the right of him.
Santorum plans to spend at least five days in Iowa this month and will
discuss his plans in a private briefing with aides, lobbyists, and
strategists in Washington this week. He, along with other conservative
candidates such as Huckabee and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, see an opening to
paint Bush as a Republican willing to sell out the party's base for
business interests. “I was an unknown,” Santorum told Bloomberg Politics'
“With All Due Respect” last week of his 2012 bid for president. Now, “I
don't think I have to spend the time and energy. Everybody knows where I
am.”

For these candidates, Bush's early moves give them little reason to get out
of the race. Internet “money bombs,” a finance tactic pioneered by
potential candidate Paul's father in his 2008 bid, enable candidates with a
passionate base of support to raise millions from hundreds of small-dollar
donors. And with campaign finance rules allowing freelance billionaires to
prop up a candidate indefinitely, there's little reason to get out of the
race if the wanna-be contender can woo a sugar daddy. “We were up against
the candidates who had so many wealthy backers that [my funding] never
became an issue,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose 2012
campaign was prolonged with millions in donations from casino magnate
Sheldon Adelson, in an interview last month. “None of these guys are going
to be lacking in resources. It's really a threshold effect.”

*Reuters: “Christie may reach for reset button in New Jersey state of
state”
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/11/us-usa-new-jersey-christie-analysis-idUSKBN0KK0H020150111>*

By Hilary Russ

January 11, 2015, 8:34 a.m. EST

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, under pressure to decide whether to
seek the Republican nomination for president in 2016, has a chance next
week to reset his governorship after being stymied all year by national
controversies and home-grown fiscal crises.

On Tuesday, Christie will deliver his state of the state address,
potentially the biggest speech he'll make before announcing his
presidential intentions, a decision that could come by the end of the month.

After a difficult year, Christie may "try to regain some momentum and frame
his tenure, both for the New Jersey audience as well as the national
audience," said Ben Dworkin, who heads a New Jersey politics institute at
Rider University.

Christie has been hounded by the so-called Bridgegate scandal and related
ongoing federal criminal probes, as well as controversy over whether he
should have gone to Texas for a Jan. 4 Dallas Cowboys game, the trip paid
for by team owner Jerry Jones.

The Cowboys are part owner of a company that does business with the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey, the transportation agency Christie's
former aides are accused of abusing in order to engineer a traffic jam on
the George Washington Bridge as an alleged act of political retribution
against a local mayor.

The bridge scandal "effectively made 2014 a giant missed opportunity" for
Christie, said Dworkin.

"Christie has cultivated an image of being the atypical politician,"
Dworkin said. "He is a reformer, he is able to get things done with
Democrats but still be a strong conservative. He doesn’t look like or sound
like anybody else out there.

"What issues like Bridgegate and the Jerry Jones gifts provide is an
opportunity for Christie's opponents to paint him as the opposite, as a
very typical politician.”

Polls have consistently shown former Florida Governor Jeb Bush ahead of
Christie in a potential Republican presidential primary. Voters would also
elect Democrat Hillary Clinton over Christie in the general election,
according to the most recent polls.

Christie is likely to use his state address to recite his accomplishments
last year, such as rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy.

His constituents may also listen to hear his plans on how to improve an
underfunded pension system, a transportation funding crisis, sluggish
economic growth and the fiscal meltdown of Atlantic City, the once-strong
East Coast gambling hub.

New Jersey has recovered only about half of the jobs it lost during the
recession, compared to well over 100 percent nationally and nearly 200
percent for neighboring New York. Matters got worse on Tuesday, when
Mercedes-Benz announced that it would move its U.S. headquarters from
northern New Jersey to Atlanta, affecting about 1,000 jobs.

That loss comes after a year that saw roughly 8,000 jobs vanish with the
closing of four casinos in Atlantic City, an economic engine of southern
New Jersey.

Also pressuring Christie will be the decision he made amid a revenue crisis
last year to cancel nearly $2.5 billion of contributions to the state's
already underfunded retirement system for public employees. New accounting
methods in November showed the system funded at just 44 percent.

In last year's state of the state, Christie said bipartisan pension changes
he won in 2011 didn't go far enough, setting the stage for his call a month
later in his budget address for additional reforms. Yet even now, he hasn't
detailed or endorsed any specific new proposals, like moving employees to a
401(k)-style plan, for example.

Christie formed a pension study commission last year, but so far it has
produced one report without specific recommendations. Commission Chairman
Thomas Healey did not return a call seeking comment.

Competing for attention, and money, is the state's nearly insolvent
transportation fund. Currently, all of the gasoline taxes collected in New
Jersey goes to pay existing debt service costs instead of funding new
projects. The fund, which has nearly gone broke several times, will run out
of money on July 1 unless lawmakers find additional funding.

One quick fix would be to raise the gas tax. At 14.5 cents a gallon, New
Jersey's tax hasn't been raised since the late 1980s, making it one of the
only low-tax bright spots for residents of a high-tax state. Long-term,
raising the gas tax alone likely won't be enough to fix the problem.

"We're at a turning point," said Gordon MacInnes, president of the
left-leaning think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective. "Our greatest
economic asset, which is our location, is under threat because the [fund]
that pays for modernizing, expanding and rehabilitating our transportation
networks goes broke."

*Calendar:*

*Sec. Clinton's upcoming appearances as reported online. Not an official
schedule.*

·  January 21 – Saskatchewan, Canada: Sec. Clinton keynotes the Canadian
Imperial Bank of Commerce’s “Global Perspectives” series (MarketWired
<http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/former-us-secretary-state-hillary-rodham-clinton-deliver-keynote-address-saskatoon-1972651.htm>
)

·  January 21 – Winnipeg, Canada: Sec. Clinton keynotes the Global
Perspectives series (Winnipeg Free Press
<http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/Clinton-coming-to-Winnipeg--284282491.html>
)

·  February 24 – Santa Clara, CA: Sec. Clinton to Keynote Address at
Inaugural Watermark Conference for Women (PR Newswire
<http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hillary-rodham-clinton-to-deliver-keynote-address-at-inaugural-watermark-conference-for-women-283200361.html>
)

·  March 19 – Atlantic City, NJ: Sec. Clinton keynotes  American Camp
Association conference (PR Newswire <http://www.sys-con.com/node/3254649>)