DENVILLE, N.J. — A testy Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday that he will reimburse the state for twice using a helicopter to attend his son’s baseball games, but defended the rides as an essential way of juggling his twin roles as a governor and a father.
Christie — a tough-talking former pr
osecutor who has attacked public employees for abusing the perks of their office — said he and the New Jersey Republican Party will reimburse the state $2,151.50 for helicopter trips that he took to Montvale on Tuesday and to Somerville last Friday to see his son Andrew play baseball for the Delbarton School of Morristown.
Photographs of Christie boarding the helicopter in Montvale on Tuesday circulated widely this week as the governor once again was being toasted as a possible presidential contender. State police officials have said it costs $2,500 an hour to operate the $12.5 million helicopter, which was purchased in part by raising fees on vehicle registrations and other services.
“It’s not like I’m using it as a perk of office,” Christie said. “I use it only when my schedule demands really that I use it. I don’t use it to joy ride around New Jersey.”
In a 45-minute exchange with reporters after a bill-signing ceremony at St. Clare’s Hospital in Denville, Christie stressed that he was acting as a father, saying it is important for him to be a good father even while he’s juggling a demanding schedule as governor.
“You know what my son said afterwards?” Christie said. “He said, ‘Dad, thanks for coming.”‘
He said he understood, as many of his predecessors discovered, that personal trips on public helicopters can exact a political toll. Christie said that wasn’t his concern.
“I didn’t make a political calculation,” he said. “I was dealing with the realities of life.” He added that the public would understand if they knew there was no real additional cost to taxpayers for him to use the helicopters.
Christie acknowledged the intense coverage of this story — his news conference was carried live in part on the cable news networks — saying it was “driven by political hacks who want to score cheap points.”
Christie said a collision of events on his schedule Tuesday prompted him to take the helicopter to watch Andrew play. He said he was particularly eager to see the game because Andrew, who began the season on the bench, was starting at catcher.
Christie also had a dinner meeting at the governor’s mansion in Princeton that night with a group of Iowa Republicans who tried to persuade Christie to run for president next year. An effort to balance the competing demands prompted him to take the round-trip helicopter ride from Trenton to Montvale, he said.
Christie said it was unrealistic, even silly, to expect the governor not to make occasional use of the helicopter for family matters and events. A governor, he said, is “on call 24-7.”
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