Say you’re one of the least popular governors in the country. Say the local papers have run several unflattering reports about conflicts of interest among your staffers. Say someone at a publicity event gives you an open-ended question while you’re sitting in a fighter jet simulator. What would you say?

Here’s a hint: do NOT say that you’d like to “blow up” the Portland Press Herald’s offices.

Maine Governor Paul LePage is a proudly outspoken political figure taken to insulting his opponents with crude sexual comments and telling students that newspapers are his “biggest fear”; political advisors call that “red meat for the base,” but we wonder about the wisdom of his media relations strategy.

@PressHerald Threatened? It was a joke, folks!

— Paul R. LePage (@Governor_LePage) August 9, 2013

Well, duh. But it won’t win you any of the new fans you need for re-election.

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This was, of course, an election filled with gaffes–and Chris Matthews (aka Tweety Bird) opened Hardball last night by apologizing (and apologizing, and apologizing) for saying he was “glad” that superstorm Sandy hit, thereby shedding light on Obama’s ability to lead in a crisis while crossing party lines and working constructively with Republicans like N.J. Governor Chris Christie. Matthews obviously wasn’t celebrating the fact that many lost their homes (and in some cases their lives) to the benefit of Obama’s campaign, but it was a dumb thing to say.

Matthews quickly realized that fact and began Wednesday’s show by saying, “I said something terrible…I said something not just stupid but wrong”. During his long-winded but genuine apology, he also refrained from blaming fatigue for his lapse in judgement: Read more

In case you didn’t notice, this has been a tough week for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, he of the quick wit, sharp temper and big ambitions.

His state was hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy, and we’d say it’s safe to assume he hasn’t gotten much sleep over the past three or four days: You may have watched him berate the mayor of Atlantic City for encouraging residents to stay at city shelters despite an earlier evacuation order; you may have heard him uncharacteristically praise President Obama’s storm response as “outstanding”; you may have seen footage of him together with the President this afternoon as the two surveyed the storm’s damage by helicopter.

This was all well and good, but today marks a far greater achievement for the Governor: he was won the week’s “best PR stunt posing as a government order” contest by officially postponing Halloween.

Its just not safe yet to be out trick-or- treating tonight, so Halloween has officially been postponed until Monday.

— Governor Christie (@GovChristie) October 31, 2012

What does this mean, exactly? Let’s read the end of the official release, complete with charmingly arcane language:

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We understand that the communications pros at the National Weather Service have a challenging and largely thankless job: convincing barely-interested Americans to pay attention to dangerous weather systems and respond accordingly.

Their jobs are especially important at a time like this: Hurricane Sandy is about to slam into New Jersey, and its aftermath won’t be pretty: Governor Chris Christie stopped begging Bruce Springsteen to hang out with him long enough to tell residents that they should prepare to go without power for 7-10 days, adding (with his trademark understatement), “Don’t be stupid, get out.”

OK, we get it: this is a big deal. The NWS knows that people don’t generally like to pack up and flee their homes, and we don’t doubt that some hard-headed New Jersey residents will stay put no matter what. Still, we wonder whether the tone of the service’s Sunday evening message was completely appropriate. Here’s the passage that raised some eyebrows (bold text ours, all caps theirs):

2. IF YOU ARE RELUCTANT TO EVACUATE, AND YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO RODE OUT THE `62 STORM ON THE BARRIER ISLANDS, ASK THEM IF THEY COULD DO IT AGAIN.

3. IF YOU ARE RELUCTANT, THINK ABOUT YOUR LOVED ONES, THINK ABOUT THE EMERGENCY RESPONDERS WHO WILL BE UNABLE TO REACH YOU WHEN YOU MAKE THE PANICKED PHONE CALL TO BE RESCUED, THINK ABOUT THE RESCUE/RECOVERY TEAMS WHO WILL RESCUE YOU IF YOU ARE INJURED OR RECOVER YOUR REMAINS IF YOU DO NOT SURVIVE.

Well, that was certainly blunt. Since Buzzfeed won’t tell us whether we should be outraged by this insensitive gut punch, we’re stuck between freaking out and following New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg‘s more measured suggestion:

“Sit back, have a sandwich from the fridge, watch television” – Mayor Bloomberg

— ben walsh (@BenDWalsh) October 29, 2012

We’ll get back to you when we figure it out.

Today in Shameless PR Stunts, the President of the New Jersey state Senate decided to make the most of the NFL‘s “replacement ref” controversy by proposing a law that would make the act of using refs who aren’t “fully trained” illegal in Dirty Jerz.

The hairline-challenged Stephen Sweeney, who just happens to be a huge Packers fan despite the fact that he lives, works and serves in Jersey, released a written statement today announcing his plans to introduce a bill that would ban “replacement officials” from calling any kind of professional sports contest in his state—a state that serves as home to both the New York Giants and the New York Jets (we still can’t get over that one—just give Jersey the Jets and let New York keep the Giants already! Everybody likes alliteration!).

Sweeney unconvincingly tried to tie the scandal to the issue of players’ health, writing that “Whether the sport is football, soccer or baseball, when referees don’t know how to properly enforce the rules, there is a real chance for unnecessary and serious injury.”

Hmm…We’re not quite sure where he was going there.

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Last weekend’s The New York Times profile detailing the internecine battles over the 9/11 Museum at Ground Zero was a classic tale of political infighting: Three massive egos, each representing huge geographic and demographic groups, arguing over the details of planning and funding for a major urban rehabilitation project and tourist destination.

“America’s Mayor” himself Rudy Giuliani took the opportunity to express his frustration, and after reading the article quite a few of us felt like the museum might continue to embarrass the states of New York and New Jersey for many years to come.

Well, today brings news that Michael Bloomberg, Chris Christie, Andrew Cuomo and their respective organizations have reached an agreement after more than a year of total inactivity. How convenient that they happened to strike a deal on the anniversary of the event itself! You might call it a PR coup—or an example of the timeless power of peer pressure.

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Donald Trump isn’t much for nuance or insight, but he manages to stay in the news somehow—in many cases without the aid of a publicist. We can’t even remember the last time he hawked a real product beyond his own golden-hued face.

Trump showcased his crude PR savvy yet again yesterday by announcing, via his Twitter feed, that he is planning a “big surprise” for the upcoming Republican National Convention. And of course this tweet was catnip for poli-bloggers. Sounds a little fishy–everybody already knows about Chris Christie.

Vanity Fair’s Juli Weiner thinks Trump’s bombshell might involve scissors, glitter, pipe cleaners and macaroni (we always preferred the star-shaped pasta). And Donald, if you’re listening, we feel like Newt Gingrich would make a great addition to the next season of Celebrity Apprentice. He can do his usual routine: condescend to everyone and get cheers for it.

So what do you think? Does The Donald have anything interesting up his sleeve, or is this “announcement” more of the usual smoke and mirrors?

Chris Christie has reaffirmed, reconfirmed, said again, and stated one more time that he’s not running for President of the U.S. And, yes, yes, he can confirm that he’s also overweight.

In a lengthy press conference that had tweeters wondering how much longer it would continue, Christie said, he would stick with New Jersey and his job as Governor.

“For me the answer was never anything but no,” he also said. Which is what we thought he had been saying all this time. Because it turns out he was.

Also, when asked about all the jokes about his weight, he said all he asked was that the jokes be funny. In a very human and calm response, he said,” you gotta know who you are” and that he’s “fair game” as a public figure.

[clip via Politico]

After all the talk about Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, and the other 50 front runners for the GOP presidential nomination, it’s an underdog and a guy who’s not even in the race that are lighting up Facebook.

Our friends at Inside Facebook have just launched the 2012 Election Tracker, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has added the most new fans today (743) bringing his total to 49,128 likes. AllFacebook has a breakdown of the fan efforts to get Christie into the race despite his repeated and very strong assertions that he will not.

And Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain, after seeming to drop out of the race, has made a comeback, first by winning the weekend Florida straw poll then by coming in third behind Perry and Romney in a Fox News poll released yesterday.

According to the Election Tracker, Cain is third in Facebook fans among the Republican candidates (behind Romney and Bachmann, who has fallen out of a favored position) and he’s seen a spike in “likes” since the weekend.

Fox blames “elites” in the Republican party for the reported dissatisfaction with the candidates. There’s still plenty of time to flush it all out.

Rachel Sterne has been appointed to the New York City’s  newly-created position, chief digital officer. The Bloomberg administration created the post six months ago and has since been searching for a person to fill the role. Sterne is the founder of the site GroundReport and teaches at Columbia Business School.

Reuters is planning on providing lots of coverage of the World Economic Forum in Davos. There will be a microsite, blog, live Twitter feed (@Reuters_Davos), and a daily broadcast.

New Jersey’s Gov. Chris Christie says he turned down the opportunity to give the Republican response to tomorrow’s State of the Union address. Rep. Paul Ryan (WI) will deliver the speech instead.

Fashion video frenzy! The latest clip (below) comes from Prada.