DENVILLE – Phil Murphy is the “master of death.”

So said Chris Christie Monday night to a group of Republicans attending state Sen. Anthony M. Bucco’s annual golf outing.

Now that the former governor had the attention of the 200 or so people at the Rockaway River Country Club, he talked about the many jobs the governor has killed through his lockdown directives.

But it was more than jobs.

Christie pointed out that the number of COVID fatalities in New Jersey per capita is the highest in the nation.

Egged on by some in the crowd, Christie also talked about drug overdoses and suicides that some attribute to COVID or the lockdown.

Gov. Murphy, he said, is not a nice guy. What he is, is a “Massachusetts liberal” who cares only about hobnobbing with his elite friends.

Christie lives in nearby Mendham Township – Bucco is his state senator. Still, it’s rare for the former governor, whose interests these days include consulting and TV commentary, to attend events in Morris County, where it all began for him as a freeholder 26 years ago.

The connection here is deeper than politics. Christie and Bucco were law school classmates in the 1980’s at Seton Hall University.

The golf outing-fundraiser originated with the late Sen. Anthony R. Bucco, who was once a political rival of Christie. But all that was deep in the past as guests, many of whom had played golf all day, sipped cocktails and ate dinner.

The younger Bucco, who has maintained the golf outing tradition, said he was “humbled” that this year’s event was a sell-out.

Bucco, like all lawmakers, is up for re-election in a district (the 25th) that has become quite competitive of late.

But with all due respect, there was another election on Christie’s mind.

“We’re sitting here on August 16 just a few months away from a gubernatorial election,” the former governor said.

He had two pieces of advice.

He said voters should believe Phil Murphy, which they didn’t do four years ago, when he says he wants to make New Jersey the California of the east.

Number two, he urged Jack Ciattarelli, who was at the outing earlier in the day, not to be shy. He said Republicans in New Jersey who are shy or too nice end up losing.

In a prior conversation, Christie said Ciattarelli first has to make the case why Murphy should be defeated in a state with about 1,1 million more registered Democrats than Republicans.

“He’s got plenty of material to work with in my opinion,” Christie said.

“The fact that we’re sitting here in Morris County, New Jersey, and he’s sitting in Italy should tell you a little bit how seriously the governor takes his job,” Christie said.

Doesn’t everyone deserve a vacation?

“You only have to run for re-election once,” Christie said, noting that the governor has a beach house on the Jersey shore that the state maintains.

By vacationing in Italy, the former governor said of Murphy:

“He’s sending a message in the midst of everything else going on in this state – a very interesting message for him to send.”

Murphy’s Italian excursion was also on Christie’s mind when he spoke to the crowd.

Musing about taking a European vacation himself while governing a state in crisis, Christie asked, “Can you imagine what the press would have done to me?”