Chris Christie Throws New Jersey Lady-Pigs Under 2016 Campaign Bus

Photo by Beth Ethier

Chris Christie is a master of pre-presidential innovation. Having spent the 2014 midterm season hitting key states to campaign for Republican candidates, Christie has moved on to a bold new tactic: inviting Iowans to decide which laws are best for New Jersey where he is, at least nominally, still governor.

During a recent trip to Iowa to entertain some of Rep. Steve King's closest personal donors during the congressman's annual pheasant hunt, Christie showed off the varsity-level pandering skills that make him a serious contender for the 2016 Republican ticket. In a conversation with an ordinary Iowan who got the money to attend King's exclusive fundraiser from a gigantic pig operation, Christie took the opportunity to jump in bed with Big Pork by pledging to veto a bill that would ban the use of gestation crates on New Jersey pig farms.

The Republican governor, who traditionally backs off from declaring how he’ll act on pending legislation when asked by reporters, made his intentions clear on a pig gestation crate bill when asked last month about it during a visit to Northwest Iowa, according to a pork producer.

“He indicated to us that he was going to veto the bill,” said Bill Tentinger, an Iowa pork producer and former president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association.

This is the second attempt by New Jersey lawmakers to ban gestation crates, which hold pregnant sows in rigid positions for months on end and are so cruel that noted animal rights activists McDonald's and Burger King don't want their pork suppliers using them. Christie vetoed a similar ban in 2013 after consulting with Iowa's Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, who also weighed in on this year's version. Iowa doesn't want any more states to ban these crates, either because it raises the specter of some kind of evil federal regulation on the subject or because it makes Iowans look mean for allowing many of their 20 million pigs to be raised in these conditions.

</p> <p>The ban, which would be 100 percent symbolic since there are only a few small pig farms in New Jersey and none of them use these crates, <a href="http: //www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/11/supporters_of_nj_pig_bill_presenting_chris_christies_office_with_125000_signatures_today.html" target="_blank">enjoys broad bipartisan support among legislators and the public</a> but really, New Jersey, what have you done for Chris Christie lately? Are you holding the earliest contest in the 2016 presidential primary? No? Then have a seat over there and he'll be with you after he's done sucking up to midwestern pork moguls. </p><p/><blockquote>“I indicated to him that I could not understand how someone who has never stepped foot on a pig farm … could ever understand (the use of gestation crates) or why they should even have any opinion on the use of them,” Tentinger said by phone. “And he said to me, ‘I agree with you.’” <p>The conversation took place at the Hole N’ the Wall Lodge in Akron, Iowa, about a thirty-minute drive from Tentinger’s pig farm, he said.</p></blockquote> <p>If they were that close to Tentinger's home for troubled pig-ladies who find themselves in a family way, why not bring Gov. Christie by for a visit? We agree with Farmer Tentinger that after setting foot in a barn with hundreds of pregnant sows who've gone mad and rubbed sores onto their snouts from facing the same direction for most of their natural lives, Christie might have a little more to think about when he puts pen to paper to veto that bill. </p><p>[<a href="http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/11/chris_christie_tells_iowa_voters_hell_veto_nj_pig_bill_thats_unpopular_in_2016_presidential_battlegr.html" target="_blank">NJ.com</a>] </p><p><em>Follow <a href="http://twitter.com/missdeutsch" target="_blank">Beth on Twitter</a>,</em><em> won't you?</em> </p><p> </p>