Weighty topic: Candidate’s ample waistline becomes an issue in NJ governor’s race

Weighty topic: NJ candidate’s girth is an issue

TRENTON, N.J. — There are weighty issues in New Jersey’s tight race for governor — the highest property taxes in the nation, for one thing. And then there are issues of weight.

Republican challenger Chris Christie’s Henry VIII-like girth has become a front-and-center topic of discussion ever since Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine ran a commercial claiming that Christie “threw his weight around” to get out of traffic violations.

The ad, first aired last month, showed a clip of a rotund Christie, his extra pounds rolling beneath his shirt, lumbering out of the back seat of an SUV.

Corzine spokesman Sean Darcy insisted the governor “has no interest in Chris Christie’s appearance.”

But Corzine, a trim 62-year-old who has been running 5K races around the state to demonstrate his fitness, has not exactly tried to squelch use of the f-word. When asked by a newspaper whether he thought Christie was fat, Corzine touched his bare pate and responded, “Am I bald?”

There is little evidence the commercial is changing many voters’ minds, but it has been a sensation online, getting more than 100,000 hits on YouTube — way more than any other ad in the race. And it has clearly changed the conversation on the campaign trail.

The subject came up in a gubernatorial debate Friday — and he handled it with humor.

“I’m slightly overweight. Apparently, this has become a great cause of discussion in the state of New Jersey,” he said. “I don’t know what that has to do with being governor.”

His answer got cheers.

Christie, a 47-year-old former federal prosecutor, won’t say what he weighs. But he acknowledged he has been struggling since college to lose weight. He said that he has dropped nearly 30 pounds since he started campaigning by working out with a trainer, and that he doesn’t have any related health problems.

Of Corzine’s commercial, Christie said: “He knows it’s really unseemly and nobody really cares about this at the end of the day.”

Unflattering photos in campaign ads are not uncommon. But it’s rare for politicians to directly criticize their opponents’ looks because that can make them appear mean-spirited, said Kerwin Swint, a political science professor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia and the author of “Mudslingers: The 25 Dirtiest Political Campaigns of All Time.”

Corzine, a former Wall Street CEO who is bankrolling his own campaign, has spent much of the race attacking his GOP challenger. He suggested Christie wants to make it harder for women to get mammograms. He criticized him for making a loan to one of his top assistants in the U.S. attorney’s office, and for giving no-bid government contracts to lawyers he has worked with.

Christie has accused the governor of being responsible for the state’s economic woes and failing to do anything about New Jersey’s high taxes. He has also portrayed Corzine as out of touch and a mean campaigner.

For his part, independent candidate Chris Daggett has attacked Corzine as aloof and Christie as hot-tempered.

The “threw-his-weight-around” ad attracted hardly any public criticism during its two-week run, perhaps because New Jersey voters themselves are saying far worse things about the candidates online, with Christie sometimes referred to as “Fatso,” and Corzine as “Corslime.”

Vicky Cubberley, a crossing guard and dog-walker in Pennsauken who usually votes Democratic but is leaning toward the independent, called the ad “out of line,” but added: “I don’t like that Christie is attacking Corzine.”

Patrick Hurley, a business consultant from Summit, said the ad made him so angry that he requested a Christie sign for his yard.

“The ad was completely, totally inappropriate,” said Hurley, a Republican who voted for Corzine four years ago and is leaning toward Christie this time.