Governor Chris Christie getting out of a 12 and a half million dollar state police helicopter.
Not to tour flood damage or any other disaster, but to go to his son's baseball game.
"On the hypocritical scale, this is a 10. Maybe an 11," democratic Assemblyman John Wisniewski said. Assemblyman Wisniewski is outraged. He says this is exactly the kind of thing the governor would pounce on if someone else had done it."Imagine him as candidate Christie looking on at someone who did what he did. There would be outrage. There would be calls for reimbursement and resignations," he said.
On Tuesday, Governor Christie took the chopper ride to his son's game in Montvale, Bergen County.
He watched a few innings with the first lady, and then took off for a meeting at the Governor's Mansion down in Princeton, sixty miles away, with a delegation of campaign donors from Iowa who tried to convince him to run for president.
It's drawing harsh criticism from all over the state today.
In response, the governor's spokesman says the helicopter is used occasionally "as the schedule demands" as "has historically been the case in prior administrations," but says the governor has been judicious in its use.
For the average person here in the garden state, who has been asked by the governor to tighten their belts in these tough economic times, the chopper ride isn't sitting well.
"Business is business and pleasure is pleasure. Don't mix them," Janet Deuerlein said.
Jason Tombrowski coaches his son's baseball team and says if he got stuck on the parkway, he would be late like everyone else.
"I thought we were all on the same playing field. He shouldn't get an extra treatment because he's governor," Tombrowski said.
New Jersey State Police officials say it costs $2,500 an hour to fly in their helicopter, but that ferrying Gov. Chris Christie to his son's high school baseball game didn't cost taxpayers anything extra.
In a statement, State Police Superintendent Rick Fuentes says Christie has been aboard state police helicopters 35 times since taking office.
Fuentes didn't say which, if any, of the trips were personal or political in nature and whether the governor has ever reimbursed the state for taking the trips.
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Some information from The Associated Press
Pictures are courtesy Christopher Costa/Patch.com. CLICK HERE for the original story at Patch.
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