Given speculation that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie may seek the Republican Presidential nomination in 2016, a Tweet from his Twitter account yesterday struck me as particularly interesting.
It would appear to be something of a nod to the environmentalist Left.
We’re not going to watch as more dolphins die along the Shore. Today we’re taking actions to figure out the problem. http://t.co/T3aIEfDnWG
— Governor Christie (@GovChristie) August 29, 2013
That may all sound good until one clicks the link and reads the full NJDEP release. Why is Christie seemingly making a big deal about spending NJ taxpayer dollars for research on something the federal government already feels is the result of “a naturally occurring disease cycle”?
The Christie Administration today directed additional state resources toward the investigation of bottlenose dolphin deaths along the coast of New Jersey that are part of what federal officials suspect is a naturally occurring disease cycle affecting populations of these marine mammals from New York to Virginia.
A bit of research indicates serious crime in NJ’s capital city has been on the upswing for some time: Trenton’s 2012 crime rate surges in wake of police layoffs.
In fact, Trenton is making news now for breaking it’s own murder record. See Trenton sees 19 homicides, sharp increase in shootings in first 6 months of the year and this from mid-August: Trenton now 2 murders away in 2013 from topping 2005 record for entire year.
It seems fair to ask if Christie isn’t simply playing national politics here with an eye toward 2016 by putting tax dollars into an effort to do more research on what appears to be Dolphins dying from natural causes, as opposed to doing anything to stem an exploding murder rate in his own capital city.
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