Christie Campaign Looked to Make WHS Roundtable Intimate

Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie's roundtable discussion last Thursday was kept as 'invitation only' in order to provide an intimate environment for the event.

The event last Thursday consisted of 15 parents discussing higher education with Christie and running mate Kim Guadagno in a roundtable setting. The roundtable participants were invited prior to the event by representatives from the Christie campaign. Four of the participants hailed from Westfield and others came from Summit, New Vernon and other communities in the area. The event was coordinated largely by Second Ward Councilwoman Joann Neylan and former Summit Common Council President P. Kelly Hatfield.

Hatfield said that the campaign had told her that they were looking for a range of parents of students in different ages and looked for a group that would be bi-partisan in nature. She said that she and Neylan reached out to local Parent Teacher Organizations for names and passed on the information about the event. She noted that the panel being mainly women centered more on the time of day of the event—the middle of the afternoon—than on a desire on the campaign's part to have a predominately female panel.

"The campaign wanted a broad cross-section of parents who would be interested in hearing about Christie's policy on higher education," Hatfield said in an interview following the roundtable.

Christie campaign spokeswoman Maria Comella confirmed Hatfield's account by saying the campaign asked local organizers to find parents, teachers and students to attend the higher education roundtables. Christie and Guadagno held events across the state last week to discuss higher education.

Comella said the invitation-only aspect of the event was not done to limit the amount of opinions heard but rather to promote a small intimate discussion. She said that the campaign has held larger town halls with an open invitation in other settings on other topics.

"We hold a lot of different kinds of events," she said. "For the purpose of the event in Westfield, we wanted a more intimate setting to fuel discussion."