July 24, 2014 01:49 PM UTC

Chris Christie Still Thinks Colorado Sucks. Vote Beauprez!

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

With New Jersey's embattled Gov. Chris Christie safely away from the state of Colorado, here's a brief roundup of the press he left in his wake yesterday while raising funds for the Republican Governors Association and Colorado GOP gubernatorial nominee Bob Beauprez. 9NEWS' Brandon Rittiman:

"Go to Colorado and see if you want to live there," Christie said in the April broadcast. "See if you want to live in a major city in Colorado, where there are head shops popping up on every corner, and people flying into your airport just to get high. To me, it's not the quality of life we want to have here in the state of New Jersey."

Speaking to the Denver media at Sam's No. 3 Diner, Christie said he meant exactly what he said and that reasonable minds can disagree… [Pols emphasis]

The Durango Herald's Peter Marcus:

Christie laughed that he had been in Colorado for only about two hours when he made the stop in Denver. He said he hadn’t had time yet to explore Colorado’s quality of life. But he still maintained his position. [Pols emphasis]

“I disagree with you,” Christie said to more than 55 percent of the Colorado electorate that legalized retail marijuana in 2012. “The fact is that we’ve got to stop in public life worrying about making everybody happy and faking it by we’re going to agree all the time. … What I’d say to those folks is if you’re looking for a candidate that you’re going to agree with 100 percent of the time, go home and look in the mirror. You’re the only person you’re going to agree with 100 percent of the time…"

AP via the Colorado Springs Gazette:

Christie said he stands by his comments.

"I'm not backing off an inch from what I said. What I said is what I believe," he said.

Given the reaction Christie received back in April when he made these disparaging remarks about Colorado and marijuana legalization–when Republicans and Democrats in this state paused to ridicule the idea that New Jersey's "quality of life" is superior to Colorado's–it's genuinely surprising that Christie didn't soften his stand at least a little. Maybe he calculated that the voters Colorado Republicans are courting this year won't be put off by Christie's unrepentant dissing of the Centennial State, but what he said went far beyond marijuana–"go to Colorado and see if you want to live there," Christie said. Well, as the Herald's Peter Marcus explains:

Colorado ranks seventh for top business states, compared with New Jersey ranking 42nd; Colorado ranks fifth for business and careers, compared with Jersey coming in at 32nd; Colorado ranks second for innovation and entrepreneurship, compared with The Garden State’s ranking at 14; and the Centennial State came in eighth for business climate, compared with 49 for Jersey…

Got it? The governor of New Jersey, a state in the nether reaches of just about every indicator of a healthy economy that exists to rank states by, and who is in the throes of a potentially career-ending political paybacks scandal, thinks Colorado sucks! "This is a much lower turnout of protesters than I normally get," Christie says, like that's a good thing? But since Christie was kind enough to grace our backward state with his presence, he's got a candidate for governor of Colorado he'd like you to consider:

Christie, the chair of the Republican Governor's Association, praised Beauprez and called him "the best chance for change and the best chance for a more positive Colorado." [Pols emphasis]

Like New Jersey, right? It's preposterous, or at least it should be.

How exactly was Christie visiting a good thing for Beauprez and local Republicans? We're not seeing it.