Chris Christie reimburses state for helicopter rides
Updated at 4:50 p.m. ET with remarks from Christie
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and state Republicans are paying the state back for Christie's personal use of a state police helicopter, after the governor took heat for taking the helicopter to his son's baseball game on Tuesday.
Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Christie has paid $2,251 to cover all of his trips, the Associated Press reports. Additionally, the State Republican Committee has paid $919 to cover the cost of Christie's flight back from the Tuesday baseball game in Montvale, New Jersey to Princeton, where he met with GOP campaign contributors from Iowa.
After Christie used the helicopter Tuesday, his political opponents and pundits said his personal use of a state helicopter conflicted with his message of fiscal austerity. The helicopter, worth $12.5 million, was one of five new choppers the state recently purchased for homeland security duties and transporting critically injured patients.
Wednesday, a spokesperson for the governor said he wouldn't reimburse the costs. Then earlier Thursday, the AP reported, a Democratic state lawmaker said she would convene a hearing into Christie's personal use of the helicopter.
"My first reaction was, 'did anyone that needed critical care not get it,'" Assemblywoman Annette Quijano told the AP.
UPDATE: At a public bill signing today, Christie said he initially chose not to submit reimbursements because the state police told him the trips came at no extra expense to the state. In fact, he said, the trips served as a benefit because the helicopter pilots are required to log a certain number of hours flying each week to keep their certifications.
The governor pointed out that of the 33 trips he's taken on state helicopters (far fewer than past New Jersey governors logged), just two were personal trips.
"I'm governor 24/7 every single day, but I'm also a father," he said, explaining his decision to use the chopper to get to his son's game. He elicited applause from the crowd, there for the bill signing, when he said his son thanked him for being there.
Though he said it was not necessary, Christie said he wrote the reimbursement check to "allow us to focus on the really important issues" facing the state and to quiet the "hacks" who were grilling him on the matter.
Christie specifically called out Democratic state Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, who was quoted in the New Jersey Star-Ledger as saying, "Leaving in the fifth inning [of his son's baseball game] to meet with wealthy Iowa political donors says something about the governor's priorities."
Huttle "should be ashamed of herself," Christie said. "She should really be embarrassed at what a jerk she is for saying something like that... We stayed every minute we could... and we had people who flew from Iowa to have dinner with us."
