By now you know that I have absolutely nothing to tell you about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s speech to some 650 Vermont Republicans Wednesday night at the Champlain Valley Exposition.

As has been exhaustively reported by your loyal press corps, the event sold out weeks ago — well before Vermont GOP elders let it be known that reporters would be denied entry. And none of us was smart enough to grab a $50 ticket before the grabbing got done.

What a bummer. 

So all we can offer you, dear reader, are a couple of badly lit photos of the fairgrounds taken by one very cold, and slightly under-dressed reporter. Like this: 

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Paul Heintz was part of the Seven Days news team from 2012 to 2020. He served as political editor and wrote the "Fair Game" political column before becoming a staff writer.

20 replies on “Breaking: New Jersey Guy Comes to Vermont and Says Stuff, Sources Say”

  1. “Lt. Gov. Phil Scott said “buying local isn’t just for hippies any more.” Are you concerned he is going to push you out of the Farmer’s Market?

  2. Gov. Christie shows his disdain for the transparency required by a true democracy and proves himself just another fat-cat plutocrat. As I recall, Obama’s fund-raising visit to VT was far more voter-friendly, albeit similarly prohibitively expensive, and he gave decent press. A GOP behind closed doors seems to be the rule these days, and if its members weren’t so often shamelessly inept in their actions and goofy in their thinking, one could feel a bit fearful wondering what they’ve got up their sleeves. On the home front, I’m disappointed by Lt. Gov. Scott’s Teflon-coated persona; surely a hard-working woodchuck homeboy like Phil could show more of the self-made man and not the ‘made’ man. Meanwhile, keep trying, journalists; you are more important now than ever.

  4. Let’s not forget the news story that really broke Mitt Romney (the 47% story) from inside a closed room of Daddy Warbucks was what – a bartender with a phone camera on his table? Sorry, but you and the rest of the reporting staff are going to have to do a better job trying to shift the blame for your lack of investigative chops.

  6. When Michelle Obama came for a Fundraiser, that also was a closed door event to the press. Its not just one side.

  7. It wasn’t a fundraiser for Christie… he was here raising money for the state GOP. Obama was here to raise money for himself.
    Christie is acting as the Chairmen of the RGA not as a candidate. This is no different from Shumlin acting as the Chair of the DGA a few months ago which ALSO BANNED MR. HEINTZ.

  9. I did not say it was a fundraiser for Christie; however, as a much-touted figure in the party, he might have dared to be more available to the press in a state that receives few such visits. Both parties would do well to become more transparent to the public.

  10. They why compare it to Obama’s fundraiser?
    And why should Christie allow reporters in? I mean really all they had to do was cough up $50 for Pete’s sake. Its not like he was hiding anything, its not like only GOP card carriers were allowed in…

  11. From the military facility, Mrs. Obama traveled by motorcade to two
    separate PRIVATE fundraisers for her husband’s presidential reelection
    fund.
    Both of the political fundraisers were closed to most representatives of the Vermont media.

  12. The whole debating Democrats versus Republicans thing is a misdirection aimed at us by our rulers. Abortion, guns, immigration, tax policy- these issues never seem to go away because indeed they are not meant to go away. They are orchestrated to keep everyone divided and angry while the elite go about their business of amassing more money and more power.
    Fox news, MSNBC, Sarah Palin, Al Sharpton- these people and institutions are characters in a scripted drama, used like Orwell’s rocket bombs to terrorize and enrage the proles in the unending war between Oceania and Eastasia.

  15. “a photo of two fellow journalists — VTDigger’s John Herrick and Anne Galloway — warming up at the Dunkin’ Donuts across the street, “
    All you guys had to do was buy three dozen mixed and told security you were delivering Governor Christie’s donuts. You could have waltzed right in.

  19. Tickets to the Obama thing were, incidentally, far more expensive. I think they started at $500, not $50, and went to $10,000 and beyond for special treatment. And the Obama administration is not particularly friendly to reporters either, they are almost universally barred from events not held outside in public.

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