In yet another sign that the Christie campaign is having trouble handling the issue of insurance company coverage of mammograms, Christie’s running mate had a somewhat awkward response to the issue: This election isn’t about mammograms, it’s about taxes.
The candidates for Lt. Governor of New Jersey — Republican Kim Guadagno, Democrat Loretta Weinberg and independent Frank Esposito — met for a debate last night. Guadagno, as Christie’s running mate, responded to the issue by saying: “The key issue is not mammograms, it’s taxes, taxes, taxes.”
The problem here is that trying to de-emphasize the issue of mammograms doesn’t fully answer the central problem — that Corzine has been attacking Christie’s support of cheaper, mandate-free insurance policies that would not be required by state law to cover certain procedures. Corzine has gained a lot of ground among women voters by arguing that this would leave them vulnerable to having mammogram coverage taken away by insurance companies.
For a taste of how fun New Jersey politics can be, check out this segment in which the candidates were asked about negative campaigning — which then turned into a discussion on Christie’s traffic violations and car accidents (and his habit of getting off very lightly in those cases), and even his weight.
When asked whether a recent Corzine ad contained any veiled messages about Christie’s weight, Weinberg said there was nothing “overt” about them, and also added with a touch of humility: “I don’t think there’s too many of us in this race who could make it into the finals of the Bachelor or the Bachelorette.”
Guadagno cited Christie’s long record in public service: “In terms of Chris’ weight, I think the cat’s out of the bag.”