Christie Promises To Govern with the ‘Spirit of Sandy’ in Second Term

"People across the country have asked me how it is we've been able to do what we've achieved. And I am reminded of a story that Pastor Joe Carter of the New Hope Baptist Church told just one week ago today, on the one year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. He called what had happened in New Jersey the last year, the 'spirit of Sandy.' He spoke about people coming together.

He said when the lights went out, no one cared what color your skin was. He said, when you didn't have any food, no one cared whether there was a republican, or a democrat offering you the food. When you didn't have a warm place for your family because of what happened in the storm, you didn't care if it was someone who thought that government should be big, or small. At that moment, the spirit of Sandy infected all of us. Reverend Carter was right, and he prayed that day that the spirit of Sandy would stay with us well beyond the days that the recovery will take. My pledge to you tonight, is I will govern with the spirit of Sandy. It's true of New Jersey, and all the people that live here, they're ready to live that way too. As your governor it's never mattered to me where someone is from, whether they voted for me or not, what the color of their skin was, or their political party. For me being governor has always been about getting the job done first. Now that doesn't mean that we don't have principles, we have many of them. And we have stood, and fought every day to cut taxes, to reduce the size of government spending, to reform pensions and benefits, to reform a broken education system, and to make sure that we create opportunity again for New Jerseyans.

And for the next four years, for the next four years, we will fight to make those changes permanent, and we will fight to make them bigger. I did not seek a second term to do small things, I sought a second term to finish the job. Now watch me do it."