Chance to Become NJ Governor

For at least 60 days this year -- and for much of next week, when her boss is in Mexico with a state delegation -- Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno has had the chance to step up from being Governor Christie's loyal lieutenant to being governor herself.

Aside from issuing an occasional executive order or signing a bill into law -- something she had done only 10 times before this week -- Guadagno's public routine rarely changes whether Christie is in state or traveling.

She visits businesses -- the latest campaign features those that have been in the state for several generations -- and she's promoted agriculture at farms and recently helped celebrate the Land of Make Believe amusement park's 60th anniversary. As acting governor on Monday, she signed five farm-to-school bills, all aimed at increasing student access to healthful, locally grown foods — bringing the total number of bills she's signed into law to 15 during during her five years in office.

During these events, Guadagno appears to listen intently to the concerns of business owners and taxpayers, cracks jokes and usually has a smile on her face -- even when she's standing beside a herd of dairy cows.

The Record reports that Guadagno has held at least 50 more such public events in the state than has Christie this year, an analysis of public schedules found. Guadagno said at one appearance that her estimate is that she has held 2,000 events since taking office in 2010, though her business tours and tourism events tend to draw far less media attention than do Christie's.

While the jobs appear to be mostly ceremonial, lieutenant governors in other states have played important roles when serving as acting governor. In Virginia in 2007, while then-Gov. Tim Kaine was away, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling was in charge at the time of the Virginia Tech mass shooting, and he met with families of the victims. In that state the job is considered part time, and Bolling's salary was $36,000. Guadagno, a full-time member of the Cabinet with a salary of $141,000, has been seen to have a public role that has remained mostly ceremonial.

Christie was out of state for one major event -- a severe snowstorm in December 2010 -- when as acting governor Guadagno would have been the one to declare a state of emergency and oversee the state's response. But she was vacationing out of the country at the time, leaving state Senate President Stephen Sweeney as the acting governor.

Guadagno's next brush with controversy came in the wake of the George Washington Bridge scandal. But the allegations against Guadagno -- that she threatened to withhold Superstorm Sandy aid to Hoboken if its mayor didn't support a development Christie wanted -- have not drawn the same level of scrutiny since the lieutenant governor has denied them. With her low profile comes less media attention and fewer questions.

And just as Christie has spent a lot of time working to distance himself from the bridge scandal that has so far clouded his second term -- telling national Republican donors that he has put the incident behind him, Guadagnohas worked to make it clear that she, too, has moved on.

As the first person to serve as lieutenant governor of New Jersey, Guadagno has had to carve out a role for herself in the administration.

Christie selected her as his running mate, and when they won their first term, he also named her secretary of state and put her in charge of promoting tourism, business and economic development. Not every state allows gubernatorial candidates to nominate a running mate; for example, Connecticut requires candidates for lieutenant governor to win a party primary.

Much like Guadagno, lieutenant governors in nearby states attend groundbreakings, work on business relations and speak at forums. When New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was in Israel recently, Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy was left in charge. While Duffy cracked a few jokes about his temporary responsibilities on Twitter, he spent his time in charge filling in for Cuomo at events, including a stop at the Governor's Cup Finger Lakes Wine and Craft Beverage Tour last week.

Guadagno acknowledges that she gets more attention when she's serving as acting governor, but she said her focus never changes.

"Anything that draws attention to businesses, making businesses feel welcome again, making them feel like we care about them staying in New Jersey and growing in New Jersey, and frankly getting out of their way and out of their pockets is good for them," she said at the Land of Make Believe this month. "So, if that means I'm acting governor or lieutenant governor and that works to accomplish those goals, it's a great day."

Despite her public schedules that are circulated to the news media regularly saying "no availability," meaning she won't take questions, Guadagno is happy to talk to reporters at her events as long as the questions are about her efforts to promote business and tourism.

Asked at a dairy farm in Lambertville last month why she won't take questions on other topics -- something Christie routinely does after events inside and outside the state -- Guadagno suggested that reporters schedule an interview through her office, which regularly declines to make her available.

"We are here to talk about agribusiness," she said. "There will be a time and a place for those questions, and this is not that."

It is at just such events, political analysts say, where Guadagno is failing to take advantage of opportunities to offer her own policies and views and build her name recognition among voters.

"She has been enormously underutilized throughout Governor Christie's tenure, and now in his absence when many people would expect her to step into the limelight, it appears there remains no room for her in the limelight even when he's gone," said Brigid Harrison, a professor of political science and law at Montclair State University.

"In my view," Harrison added, "that is a very calculated effort on his administration's behalf. There is but one political star in the Republican Party in the state of New Jersey, and that is Governor Christie, and there really is no room for anyone else."

A recent poll asked New Jersey voters if Guadagno would make a good governor should Christie leave office early to run for president in 2016. Of the 1,148 voters the Quinnipiac Poll surveyed this month, 66 percent said they did not know enough about her to respond, 17 percent said she would not make a good governor, and 16 percent said she would.

Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said Guadagno has been able to cultivate a strong relationship with an important constituency.

"She is extremely well-known in the business community, not well-known to voters," Murray said. "But that might be a good strategy in and of itself because if you're not the governor, it's still very hard to get name recognition, regardless. So why bother trying to do that when you can pick an influential constituency and work with them behind the scenes."

Business owners and local officials are delighted when she visits and less concerned about how much media attention she draws.

"The companies that she is visiting, regardless of whether she is acting governor or lieutenant governor, feel very special because a person is there who is one of the top two people in the state of New Jersey," said Tom Bracken, president and chief executive of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce. "Whether the media gives it more attention or not, the people she is visiting think it's very special and that's what really matters."