There’s a strong case to be made for a fiscal comparison between loud Chris Christie, and less boisterous, but ultimately more effective, Scott Walker.   Christie might be louder and more visible, but “conservative”, not so much.  

While Wisconsin has a budget surplus and improving bond rating, New Jersey, via Christie, is going in the exact opposite direction.

NEW JERSEY – Here’s how drastically Chris Christie’s political fortunes have turned: Bridgegate might not be his biggest problem.

Just as the New Jersey governor is trying to turn the corner on the traffic scandal and restore his national luster, now he’s getting blamed for a yawning budget deficit and recent downgrade of the state’s debt.

Christie and state lawmakers have less than two months to close a sudden budget hole. Analysts say the governor’s administration brought on the problem by projecting the state would collect much more in tax revenue than it did; Christie’s aides insist the Legislature bears some of the blame.

[…]  Chris Chocola, head of the anti-tax Club for Growth, said if Christie runs his group will conduct an exhaustive review of the governor’s economic stewardship. Chocola raised questions about whether “the substance matches the rhetoric.”

“I’ve never looked forward to a [review] more than Christie’s, assuming he’s running,” Chocola said in an interview. “And the reason [is] because you know there’s a lot of verbiage around him and I think he certainly gets a lot of attention by his style.”

Christie’s troubles reached an apex in the past few weeks, as Fitch Ratings, one of the “Big Three” credit rating agencies, downgraded New Jersey’s debt from AA- to A+ last week. It was the fifth such downgrade since he took office in 2010.

The company cited, in part, the magnitude of an additional $807-million-revenue shortfall that the Christie administration recently announced, which brought New Jersey’s total full-year budget gap up to just over $1 billion.  (read more)