Administration of GOP Star Chris Christie Makes $400 Million Mistake

The Newark Star-Ledger has the scathing report:

After making a high-profile bid for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal education reform money, New Jersey fell three points short of receiving "Race to the Top" funding, in part because of an error by the Christie administration in the state’s application, records obtained by The Star-Ledger show.

One five-point question on the application asked for budget information comparing the 2008 and 2009 school years. However, the state submitted information comparing the current year to 2011.

That mistake cost the state 4.8 points. The state lost points in other areas as well, the records show.

[...]

"New Jersey did not supply the 2008-2009 data as required and therefore forfeits the points," said the report from one of the federal reviewers scoring the competition.

Chris Christie is supposed to be a model for Republican successes to come. His approval rating has hit 51 percent in a couple of recent polls (though most polling this summer has pegged his approval rating in the mid-40s). Just today, The Hotline writes that the "GOP Should Follow Christie Playbook." Have to wonder if that "playbook" includes sloppy and hasty work that costs his state hundreds of millions of dollars.

Voters assuredly aren't looking for boring technocrats who manage but don't lead -- but that doesn't mean that they will condone shoddy work from their elected officials. Christie signed off on this application, which was, according to the newspaper, "hastily rewr[itten]" at the last minute after compromises with the teachers union had been scrapped. In fact, the time crunch was such that the Christie administration was forced to drive the application to Washington, DC to get it in on time. Effective governance this does not appear to be. Still a model for the GOP?

[UPDATE at 12:55 PM]: Via Politico's Ben Smith, Christie is apparently trying to shift blame for his own administration's incompetence:

Gov. Chris Christie this morning acknowledged the state made a clerical error that blew its chance at winning $400 million in federal money for schools, but he blamed Obama administration bureaucrats for not giving New Jersey a chance to correct the mistake.

That's some chutzpah.