Christie gets tough with heckler over Sandy progress

BELMAR, N.J. — On the second anniversary of superstorm Sandy,Gov. Chris Christie heckled back.
After a warm reception from local schoolchildren in Belmar and a subsequent stroll with his wife, Mary Pat, and Mayor Matt Doherty through the downtown, throngs of people greeted the governor with kind words and well wishes. Then, rather suddenly, the mood shifted.
As Christie started to deliver remarks from a podium on a dais set up in the middle of Main Street, which had been partially closed to motor vehicle traffic for his visit, protesters with handwritten signs began to stand in the audience.
"Get Sandy families back in their homes — finish the job," read one white poster held over the crowd in red ink. "Gov. Christie, you are sitting on $800,000,000 in Sandy recovery money. Get it to families in need," read another.
"To all you folks who have lined the streets today and had so many nice things to say, I want to thank you," Christie began to say, as the protesters began to yell out over him, with taunts such as "Finish the job!"
"I got the picture," Christie said, as his sunny disposition began to fade. "Listen, you all know me, so if we're going to get into a debate here today, it's going to get very interesting and very fun."

The most vocal of the protesters was former Asbury Park City Councilman Jim Keady, whose family also owns the Lighthouse Tavern in Waretown. Keady, a political independent who now lives in Spring Lake, was wearing a suit and holding up the first sign. He was relentless in his heckling.
"I'll be more than happy to have a debate with you any time you like, guy," Christie said. "Because somebody like you doesn't know a damn thing about what you're talking about, except to stand up and show off when the cameras are here."
Christie started to yell. "I've been here when the cameras aren't here, buddy!" as applause, cheers, other people's heckles and a few gasps drowned out both men.
"Turn around. … Maybe take your jacket off, roll up your sleeves and do something for the people of this city," Christie shouted. "It's been 23 months since then, when all you've been doing is flapping your mouth and not doing anything! So listen, if you want to have that conversation later, I'm happy to have it, buddy. But until that time, sit down and shut up!"
A group of police officers had surrounded Keady and were speaking with him, which led to him voluntarily leaving the scene.
"He does his bullying act, right? Look, I'm 6'4 and I'm a former pro-athlete, I'm not going to be bullied by him," Keady said. "He'll do his bullying act, but did you notice he didn't answer any of the questions? Did you notice he doesn't want to talk about the $1.1 billion in the RREM money, the 80 percent of it that is not spent, the thousands of people who are out of their homes?"
RREM refers to the Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation program. The state dispenses $1.1 billion in federal funds to help eligible homeowners repair and rebuild their primary homes.
"Does he always handle the protesters like that?" asked Dorothy Perretti of Belmar, who said while she understood their anger, this was not the appropriate venue to cause trouble in her opinion. "This is a celebration for the people who have worked so hard to get where we are and if there's an issue, then they need to deal with that at a different location."
Mayor Doherty, who was unfazed by the drama, said later he was simply grateful to have the governor and New Jersey's first lady back in town.
"While we still have work to do, it is nice to take a moment and look back at all we have accomplished as a town because of his leadership," Doherty said.
Earlier in the day, Christie had also gotten a less than welcoming reception from members of the Sandy watchdog group, "Stop FEMA Now," while arriving at the East Dover Marina on Fischer Boulevard. Members shouted names at the governor as he stepped from his motorcade and went into an office.
Among the crowd was Richard and Susan Sabo, 60 and 61 respectively, who had moved into their Toms River home just three weeks before Sandy. The house had stood since 1972 before it was swamped in the disaster. They have been disappointed by the recovery and the bureaucratic nightmare they have had to endure.
"He was just a huge disappointment," said Susan Sabo.
One of the key arguments from Stop FEMA Now is that New Jersey's RREM program doles out $150,000 while New York State's counterpart program doles out $300,000 to its homeowners impacted by Sandy.
Christie said that's because there were more homeowners impacted in New Jersey than in New York State and therefore the money had to be spread around to a greater pool of affected homeowners.
"I understand people's frustrations, but I always said from the beginning, this was going to be the longest part; 65,000 homes damaged or destroyed in one day, takes a long time," Christie said. "But we can only go as fast as we can go and we're doing the very best that we can. … But that doesn't mean we shouldn't think and talk about the extraordinary progress that had been made in two years."
Businesses like this marina didn't think they could go on after Sandy, now they're back and operating.
"We've seen that up and down the Jersey Shore," Christie said. "We just keep plugging away."

 From USATODAY.COM