The State of New Jersey has a population of 8.9 million and annual budget of $23 billion. that is a pretty significant size even if it isn’t a sovereign state. It is a domestic story rather than foreign.
The wider significance of the affair is that it has ended the Presidential campaign of the last remaining Republican in a major elected office who is on the left-ish wing of the party. It has also unearthed a series of similar claims which look set to lead to impeachment of Christie and his Lt Governor shortly after the 2014 mid-term elections (the earliest date that an impeachment process can begin).
What is rather more surprising is not the attention the ‘bully’ story has been getting now but the fact that the press covered it up so long.
