In a web ad released today, Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno touted her contributions to Monday’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, which revealed that New Jersey added over 60,000 jobs in 2016 – the largest year of private-sector growth since 2000. In January of this year, the state picked up 12,600 jobs, and the statewide unemployment rate fell to to 4.6 percent – below the national average of 4.7 percent.

The Republican front-runner for governor, Guadagno as LG led and implemented the New Jersey Partnership for Action (PFA), the State’s four-pronged comprehensive economic development strategy. She chairs the Red Tape Review Commission, which she says has has eliminated over 4,000 pages of unnecessary regulations, and oversees the Business Action Center, a “one-stop” shop for businesses helping companies to stay and grow in New Jersey.

As Secretary of State, Guadagno also promotes the state’s tourism industry, which has experienced 7 years of visitation growth and contributed a record $44.1 billion to the state’s economy in 2016 under her leadership.

Polls show the public doesn’t want to hear it, as Guadagno’s boss, Governor Chris Christie, trudges onward office with one of the lowest job approval ratings of any governor in the country. The LG has sought to put distance on Christie where she can, opposing the gas tax hike as part of the deal to fix the state’s depleted Transportation Trust Fund (TTF), and weathered his ire in return. When Christie preempted her League of Municipalities speech last year it looked like a case of a temporarily stepped on ego simply flaring. But then he did the same thing at the Marriott Wardman Hotel in D.C., using the occasion to wax philosophical on his years as governor – time that Guadagno might have been able to turn into a perfect sage on a stage opportunity as she seeks the governorship.

As it is, the LG is left to cherry pick those nuggets of good news from Christie world, attaching herself to those successes and making the case for her vital role in the administration, such as the contents of Monday’s jobs report, even as Christie undercuts her on the trail.

To view the LG’s web ad, please go here.