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N.J. Gov. Christie comes to Minnesota for GOP candidates

Christie, a possible presidential candidate, stumped for gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson and Mike McFadden, who's running against Sen. Al Franken.

By Ricardo Lopez

October 14, 2014 at 1:05AM

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. foreground, and GOP gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson visited the Global Academy in Columbia Heights on Monday. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Days after former President Bill Clinton stumped for Democrats in Minnesota, another nationally prominent politician and potential 2016 presidential candidate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, was in town, lending Republicans a hand.

Christie, chairman of the Republican Governors Association and a possible presidential candidate, was in Minnesota on Monday stumping for Jeff Johnson, the GOP gubernatorial candidate, and Mike McFadden, an investment banker running against Sen. Al Franken.

The three Republicans toured Global Academy, a charter school founded in a Columbia Heights strip mall in 2008 that has dazzled education officials with high scores lately, particularly since many of its students come from low-income immigrant families. Johnson touted charter schools as an effective model to address the state's achievement gap between white and minority students.

"I'm here because I think Jeff can win this race," Christie told reporters and eighth-graders who attended a news conference after the classroom tour.

During the visit, candidates briefly stopped in three classrooms — a first-grade class, a third-grade class and an eighth-grade class, where they took questions from the students. Students shared with the candidates the assignments they were working on. Christie fielded a question about whether he's considering running for president in 2016. "I'm thinking about it," Christie said. "I'll probably decide in the first part of next year."

One student asked Johnson and Christie to give their opinions on President Obama's time as chief executive. Both said they were disappointed in his record but said it was important to respect the presidency.

Christie said he supported Johnson's plan for education reform, which includes giving schools more local control over the hiring and firing of educators and for "parent trigger" legislation to give parents the option to make changes at struggling schools.

The New Jersey governor, who has presided over a state that has added dozens of charter schools during his administration, said these types of schools are an example of reform that serves the needs of parents looking for more options for their children. New Jersey has nearly 90 charter schools.

Johnson and McFadden are both pledging to work toward reducing Minnesota's achievement gap between white and minority students.

"For me as governor, I'm not going to sleep until we start actually narrowing this achievement and better serving our kids in this state," Johnson said.

The Minnesota DFL Party criticized the visit, saying that Christie cut more than $1 billion in state aid to education. Minnesota Democrats point to Gov. Mark Dayton's record on education, heralding the implementation of all-day kindergarten in the state.

"Next month voters will reject Johnson's backward policies and re-elect Mark Dayton," said Ellen Perrault, a DFL spokeswoman.

Christie's visit comes days after former President Bill Clinton attended a DFL rally for Dayton and Franken, and ahead of a visit by Sen. Elizabeth Warren this weekend to campaign for Franken and the DFL.

Global Academy opened in 2008 and has 430 students enrolled in kindergarten through eighth grade. When it opened, nearly 90 percent of students, many of whom are immigrants, were classified as English-language learners, according to school officials. That figure is now down to 46 percent.

Christie's tour also included two private fundraisers for Johnson and a visit to Wichita, Kan., to stump for Gov. Sam Brownback, the Republican incumbent. Christie is also visiting Maine and Connecticut to campaign for Republican gubernatorial candidates in those states.

Franken attended a celebration of Minneapolis' first Indigenous Peoples Day, which now takes the place of Columbus Day in that city. To a crowd of several hundred at the Minneapolis American Indian Center, Franken told of his first pow-wow, saying he was advised by an American Indian aide not to dance, but did anyway after encouragement from the crowd and a promise not to make fun of him.

"I was a dancing fool," he said.

At an afternoon news conference, Franken talked about his work combating so-called stalking apps. Franken also said he supported closing Guantanamo Bay and prosecuting suspected terrorists in U.S. courts.

"There are super-max security prisons that we can put these prisoners in from which there is no escape. And I think that these terrorists should feel what American justice is," Franken told reporters at a State Capitol-complex news conference.

The McFadden campaign criticized Franken's position as out of touch. "Minnesotans are being recruited to join terror groups and threaten lives at home and abroad, yet Senator Franken wants to close the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay? You can't get any more out of touch than that," said Tom Erickson, spokesman for the McFadden campaign.

Staff writer Patrick Coolican contributed to this report.

Ricardo Lopez • 651-925-5044

Chris Christie, left, Jeff Johnson, and U.S. senatorial candidate Mike McFadden took questions from a class of eighth-graders. Both candidates have promised to help reduce the achievement gap. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)