Dear Editor:
I have long appreciated Al Sullivan’s work detailing local news and political happenings. Unfortunately, Mr. Sullivan’s columns tend to lose their trademark perspicacity when he departs his natural depth of one-party Hudson County to address statewide matters. Mr. Sullivan is quite clearly a fierce partisan. It is very likely that his partisanship matches that of his readers. However, this partisanship often manifests itself in misinterpretations of the wider world, and these misinterpretations, reported as fact, do not serve his readers well, regardless of their worldviews.
Case in point appears in one of Mr. Sullivan’s recent “Between the Lines” columns. Mr. Sullivan purports to explain the premise of Governor Chris Christie’s policies by stating that Mr. Christie’s “sole purpose in life is to narrow the scope of government”. Leaving aside what Christie’s policy views are, let’s examine the crux of Mr. Sullivan’s statement, namely that his policy views – whatever they are – constitute the governor’s “sole purpose in life”.
Rudimentary research uncovers that Christie has been married to his spouse for nearly 25 years, and the two have four children. Mr. Christie continues to reside in his private residence rather than the Governor’s mansion. He has had a career as a lawyer in private practice, government relations, and, of course, as a U.S. attorney. While U.S. Attorney, Christie filed an amicus brief in support of an Albanian Muslim mosque seeking to build in Wayne, which had been denied a local building permit. It is common knowledge that the governor is a rabid fan of Bruce Springsteen and has attended on the order of 120 concerts. Finally, although I can’t document this last point through written research, it would appear that the governor enjoys food.
In short, it would be very difficult to discern from the above that Christie has “a sole purpose” of any kind. Rather, it seems that, like most human beings, the governor has led a life of many and varied activities. It appears that he has focused on different aspects of professional, family, and personal development over the years, and is not a man obsessed by any particular policy goal. If I could presume to make a suggestion, it would be that Mr. Sullivan stick to his knitting. The Hudson County beat is crucial and underreported. Anyone can make unschooled fun of a governor, there’s nothing special about that.
Eric Wigginton
Jersey City