In his January 2011 inaugural address, California Gov. Jerry Brown declared it a “time to honestly assess our financial condition and make the tough choices.” Plainly the choices weren’t tough enough: Mr. Brown has just announced that he faces a state budget deficit of $16 billion—nearly twice the $9.2 billion he predicted in January. In Sacramento Monday, he coupled a new round of spending cuts with a call for some hefty new tax hikes.

In his own inaugural address back in January 2010, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also spoke of making tough choices for the people of his state. For his first full budget, Mr. Christie faced a deficit of $10.7 billion—one-third of projected revenues. Not only did Mr. Christie close that deficit without raising taxes, he is now plumping for a 10% across-the-board tax cut. 

It’s not just looks that make Mr. Brown Laurel to Mr. Christie’s Hardy. It’s also their political choices.

By JAMES FREEMAN

Garden State Gov. Chris Christie has a message for the top 1% of income earners: Please occupy New Jersey. “I’m going to start going after a lot of these hedge-fund guys who are in Connecticut and New York and say, ‘You’re going to get a better deal with us,'” says the country’s most important Republican not running for president.

Mr. Christie’s new tax-reform plan also offers an improved deal to the bottom 99%, which is why he may be able to move it through New Jersey’s Democratic legislature: a 10% cut in tax rates across the board.

The governor is two years into a four-year term. In 2010, he told the Journal’s editorial board that the Garden State represented America’s best example of a “failed experiment” in rising taxes and bigger government. As he returns to the Journal for another visit, it’s time to check the results of his counter-experiment.

Politically, so far so good. A recent Quinnipiac poll gives him a 53% approval rating among the state’s registered voters, and Mr. Christie says that private polls show him “in the low 60s.”

Economically, unemployment in the state has fallen to 9% from a high of 9.8%. With almost 3.9 million people working, New Jersey has added almost 60,000 private-sector jobs since he took office, while shedding more than 21,000 government jobs. Reforms of the pension and health programs for government employees will save taxpayers an estimated $120 billion over the next 30 years. A new limit on local property-tax increases appears to be working. (more…)

What Chris Christie’s deeply disappointed promoters recognized is that the freshman governor is a great communicator, a rare gift. A short list of great political communicators would include New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, Bill Clinton and Chris Christie—all super salesmen of retail politics.

The La Guardias, Clintons and Christies are merely the genius product of how people negotiate life where they grew up—La Guardia’s New York streets, Clinton’s slick Southern charm. It’s hard to overstate how New Jersey Chris Christie is. People compare Chris Christie to James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano. But it’s not Tony Soprano. It’s just James Gandolfini, a Jersey guy. Both emit a “Don’t b.s. me,” in-your-face bluntness learned living in a state filled with no-nonsense Italians and Irish. (Mr. Christie is both.)

Gov. Christie said repeatedly this year he didn’t think he was ready to run for the presidential roses. No matter. They told him this is an historically important presidential election in which the American people need to decide whether to go where Barack Obama’s wants to take them or choose the alternative that’s been best articulated by Rep. Paul Ryan. True. But those banking on a Christie run may have seen only a glass half-full. (more…)