Who should be madder at Chris Christie — Democrats or Republicans?

The New Jersey governor takes heat from both sides for calling a snap election to replace the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg

Chris Christie
(Image credit: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) managed to anger Republicans and Democrats at the same time on Tuesday, when he called for an Oct. 16 special election to fill the seat of Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who died Monday. Democrats accused Christie of playing politics by keeping the seat off the ballot in November, when he's up for re-election. The Dems say Christie wants to be sure that he wouldn't be hurt by an expected surge in Democratic interest in the Senate vote, as Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) has made it clear he wants the seat. The GOP wanted Christie to appoint a Republican to serve through the 2014 midterms, because that would have given them another reliable vote in the Senate for a whole year.

Christie insisted there was no partisan calculus behind his decision. "The political purpose is to give the people a voice," Christie said. "The issues facing the United States Senate are too important not to have an elected representative making those decisions." Neither party appeared satisfied with his explanation, though.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.