Election 2011: No coattails on Christie?

To hear Democrats tell the story of Tuesday's election, voters went to the polls to make sure Democratic legislators continue to keep a Republican governor and his attack-style politics under control.

"Last night was a clear indication that New Jersey has had enough with Gov. Christie and Republicans who march in lockstep with them," said the state Democratic chairman, Sen. John Wisniewski (D., Middlesex).

But from Republican Christie's seat at the governor's mansion, where he watched the results come in over NJTV, the election indicated absolutely nothing about the electorate. The numbers, he said, were foretold in April, when a Rutgers University professor acting as a tiebreaker for a legislative redistricting commission endorsed a Democratic map for new legislative districts.

"I've never thought, contrary to popular belief, that my power was unlimited," Christie said Wednesday morning at a news conference in Sussex County. "We're in a democracy, guys. And elections that happen with gerrymandered maps have gerrymandered results."

The election of all 120 legislative seats Tuesday ended with no change in party ratio in the Senate and one Democratic pickup in the Assembly - in the newly redrawn (and more Democratic) South Jersey district of losing Assemblyman Domenick DiCicco (R., Gloucester).

"When you have a governor who has approval ratings at 58 percent statewide, and you can't have one new representative elected in the Legislature, I think it tells you everything you need to know about the map," Christie said.

But Democrats said the election showed that Christie's approval ratings hadn't lifted other Republicans. They said Christie did little work to help his fellow Garden State Republicans - as evidenced by a cookie-cutter commercial used by several candidates and his absence last week campaigning in Mississippi.

"What this shows is Chris Christie is all coat and no tail," Wisniewski said. "It shows the shine is coming off the Christie penny."

New Jerseyans might go to a Christie town hall meeting "in case the governor yells at somebody," but they want "rational adults" making policy decisions, he said.

In an indication that the tone of Trenton will not change with this new legislature, Christie retorted: "I know John; he must be rubbing his head coming up with these really pithy quotes, because he doesn't spend any time helping the people of New Jersey."