You know what's hilarious? Mocking 15,000 still homeless New Jersey families!
Unable to get his attention in New Jersey, residents who are still not back in their homes after Hurricane Sandy crowdsourced enough funding to
follow Governor Chris Christie to Iowa where they interrupted his speech at the Iowa Ag Summit:
Not even halfway through the governor’s remarks, Joe Mangino -- who’s still displaced from his home in Beach Haven West -- interrupted Christie from the crowd.
“Governor. I live in New Jersey also,” he said, imploring Christie to “finish the job” of the Sandy recovery.
Meanwhile, fellow storm victim Amanda Devecka-Rinear stood next to him holding a sign that read, “Thousands of families are still homeless!”
“Come back home!” she shouted.
In typical Christie fashion, he laughed it off:
“I’m glad to see that New Jersey has come to Iowa,” Christie chuckled from the stage. “My people follow me everywhere. It’s fabulous! I’m magnetic,” he joked to the event’s moderator. “They can’t stay away from me!”
As police approached Joe Mangino to escort him out, Christie quipped that he
"hoped they understand he'll deal with them the same here (Iowa) as he does in New Jersey":
Of course, the crowd went wild as he jokingly dismissed the Sandy survivors.
Joe Mangino says his trek isn't about politics, it's about getting approximately 15,000 New Jersey families back in their homes:
“I don’t want to be the guy that is always talking about Sandy. I want it to go away!” he said in an interview last week. “We talk to friends, and sometimes I realize I’m saying that, and I’m like, ‘Oh, just shut up already with the Sandy stuff!’ You know? I just want to sit on my couch on a Friday night and do nothing and fall asleep at eight o'clock. I just want to get back to normal life.”
Fed up after Christie's office refused a meeting with Sandy survivors, he set up a
GoFundMe page:
Will you help me get to Iowa? Why Iowa and not Key West or Jamaica. Because I’m insane, that’s why! In addition to my work with START I’m also working with a group called the New Jersey Organizing Project. Their goal is to get RREM grant money out the door and get Sandy families home. We continue to meet with U.S. senators, state senators, department heads, local leaders, etc. to get help for 15,000 desperate families. We have developed some great ideas and have recommended legislation to help speed up and streamline the recovery process. We requested a meeting with Gov. Christie but were denied, the reason being he was too busy to meet with us. Which brings me back to Iowa. Christie along with 6 other presidential hopefuls will be attending the 2015 AG Summit on March 7th. I also have a ticket for the summit but I’m not planning on running for president. So if he won’t meet me here in NJ then I’ll go to him in Iowa. My goals for going to Iowa are:
To garner national attention for the 15,000 families still not home.
To demand from Christie that we have real leadership, transparency and accountability on Sandy Recovery.
To meet with the Iowa CCI, who is supporting the NJOP, to discuss strategies to help us meet our goals in NJ.
Listen to a recording of the remarks and an interview with
Joe Mangino here: