U.S. attorney tells students he believes in them
Chris Christie meets with students at Colts Neck High School
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY VICTORIA HURLEY-SCHUBERT Chris Christie, the U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, answers questions from students following his remarks at Colts Neck High School.

COLTS NECK - Finding something or someone to believe in and then showing up in life to work for that belief was the message a group of high school students heard on April 19 from Chris Christie, the U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.

Christie spoke with students who are enrolled in the Freehold Regional High School District's Center for Law and Public Service at Colts Neck High School.

Borrowing a quote from movie director Woody Allen, Christie said, "90 percent of life is showing up, to a large degree."

Earlier this year Christie offered remarks about his crime-busting efforts in New Jersey during a meeting of the Marlboro Township Council. Students from the Law and Public Service learning center attended that meeting and asked Christie if he would come to their school to speak to their entire group.

U.S. Attorney Chris Christie spoke about the impact of political corruption, among other topics, during a meeting with students who are enrolled in the Freehold Regional High School District's Law and Public Service Learning Center at Colts Neck High School.

He said he would, and last week he kept that promise.

"Most adults I meet are frustrated with things going on in New Jersey. They want me to fix the problems. If they see me, they ask me to prosecute the bad people, and I have done that. But your presence at that meeting [in Marlboro] told me you already understand that you are the way to fix the problems," Christie said in his opening remarks at the high school.

He spoke about politicians who promise certain things and suggested that the students beware of people like that.

"I can guarantee that anyone who says 'elect me' or 'offer me this position because I have the solution to the problems' is lying to you. I have watched too much of this," the U.S. attorney said. "They will have easy answers because they know that is what you want to hear, but there are no easy answers."

Bringing the issue of political corruption to a place they were familiar with, Christie gave an example of corruption in politics in Marlboro. Referring to the town as "ravaged by corruption," he said former Mayor Matthew Scannapieco took more than a quarter of a million dollars in bribes and helped allow construction projects to occur that should not have been permitted.

"You live with the aftermath of those decisions, with crowded schools that may need to be redistricted. Your parents pay higher taxes. And all of that is due, in part, because that mayor was more interested in his personal finances than your future. His money was more important than a comfortable life for you and your parents, where you would have enough room in your classrooms, where traffic would not be so congested and where your parents could afford the property taxes in the town they chose to live in," Christie said.

"You are the ones who can get rid of those guys," he added. "It takes our office two, maybe three years to investigate these guys because we need to do it one at a time, but elections happen overnight and they happen every year. All of you will soon have the opportunity to vote. I don't think people fully realize that their votes do count. They look to people like me to fix everything. I can only fix along the edges," he told the students.

Christie said he was not minimizing the efforts of his office, citing the fact that his office has prosecuted and convicted 107 politicians over the last five years. He said although those figures seemed impressive, the students had to understand there are 566 municipalities in New Jersey and all of them have elected officials running them. He cited New Jersey's 612 school boards with elected officials and went on to talk about county and state officials who also run their respective areas.

"Your governor said it will take $33 billion to run the state (this year). Who can govern all these governing entities?" he asked the students, then answered, "You can."

He told the students that when they turn 18, they will become the "most ignored group of voters in the country."

"You won't get mailers or messages on your Internet or cell phone. Why? Because you do not vote. As a group, 18- to 35-year-olds are the lowest percentage of voting public," Christie said. "(Politic-ians) will not spend money to target your group if you don't vote. They don't care about your issues, but you can change that. Just go and vote. When they see that vote they will begin to address your issues."

Christie said he accepted the invitation to speak at Colts Neck for two reasons.

"You gave me an inkling at that Marlboro (council) meeting that you cared, that you have questions and opinions you wanted to express. And because this will lay the seeds of doing this for the rest of your life," he said.

The U.S. attorney said some students may have parents who say voting does not matter, that all politicians are crooks and that it does not matter who you vote for. He acknowledged that many people in public service have given citizens reason to become cynical, but he urged the students not to become cynical.

"Rise above that feeling," Christie said. "It's easier to be cynical. It's easier to not care. It's easier to think that you cannot make a difference. It frees you from the obligation and responsibility to do anything about it. It's easier to say, it's not my problem and let someone else fix it. Unfortunately, no one else is fixing it. There are two types of people in politics, those who want to do something and those who want to be something - beware of those.

"I see you as someone who is already special. If you run for public office because you think it will make you bigger and better, do me a favor and don't bother. But if you want to make the world a better place, if you have ideas that are bursting out of you, and opinions that make sense, or if you think someone else's opinions are so wrong that they make you crazy, those are the right reasons to be in public life."

Christie used inspirational stories from his own life to drive home a point. The point, he said, is that "life really can be amazing if you let it, but you have to be in the game."

He said he heard Tom Kean speak at his junior high school in 1976. Kean, who went on to become New Jersey's governor, was an assemblyman at the time. Christie said that after listening to Kean he decided he wanted to do something like Kean was doing.

He encouraged the students not to become cynical.

"Hope is much harder to hold than cynicism, faith is more difficult to have than not participating, and being informed is much more difficult than ignorance," he said.

He said young people can get involved in the political process by volunteering for a campaign they believe in or just by being informed about a candidate's ideas and beliefs.

"You guys gave me hope," Christie said. "There is no more important part of my job than renewing faith and trust in government."

He ended his talk by telling the students that after they get out of school they should choose something they love and show up for that.

Students then had a chance to ask questions. The topics ranged from Christie's work to issues such as abortion, corruption and hope for the future in government.

Dana Giansman, 17, asked Christie what he thought of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to uphold a law that bans a procedure referred to as partial birth abortion.

"The decision on the issue of abortion will continue to be difficult and divisive. No presidential candidate has yet addressed this issue in the campaign, but they will now. They will have to answer the question 'What is your opinion of that ruling now?' " he said.

Arielle Giordano, 16, asked Christie if he thought corruption would ever end.

The attorney said he did not think corruption would end, "but we can slow it down, embarrass them and make it tougher on people in the public light."

He told the students to use their intuition when learning about government officials; to use the same process they would when assessing a new friend.

"Anyone can fool you once. Don't allow them to fool you twice," he advised.

Another student asked if Christie thought his office was bipartisan.

The U.S. attorney said he considers his office to be nonpartisan.

He said while he is a Republican, he does not ask if someone if they are a Republican or a Democrat.

"I don't care," he said.

He referenced Marlboro Mayor Robert Kleinberg on a local level. Referring to Kleinberg as a "good guy doing a good job," Christie said he does not know if Kleinberg is a Republican or a Democrat.

He said his office is fair.

"That's why this is called the Department of Justice even though some people would like it to be called the office of prosecution," he said.

"Do you see hope for the future?" Elaina Montagnino, 16, asked Christie.

Christie said there are a lot of good candidates for president and he encouraged the students to pay attention, become well-informed and to trust their instincts about who they support in the campaign.

He told the story of how he met George W. Bush, the future president, in 1992 while he (Christie) was working on a re-election campaign for Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush.

"I had taken off a few months to work for President Bush's re-election campaign," Christie said. "One day there were no volunteers around to pick up the president's son at the airport. I was elected to go. I did not consider myself a chauffeur, I was a lawyer, but I didn't consider the job beneath me because it was doing something for someone I believed in."

He said that he and George W. Bush later established a relationship.

Christie was appointed by Bush to his current position as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey in 2002 for a four-year term.

"That term expired in January 2006. Now I hold this position at the pleasure of the president. If I'd said no, I'm a lawyer not a chauffeur, I probably never would have met him and who knows how that would have changed my life," he said.