ATLANITC CITY – While Kim Guadagno dumped out an ad attacking Phil Murphy on his tax plan, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6) rushed to the defense of the Democratic gubernatorial candidate. He also took a moment to savage Governor Chris Christie.

“I saw him with his behind there on Island Beach State Park,” said the congressman to claps and laughs, referring to Christie’s decision, during the state shutdown this past summer, to occupy an easy chair on a public beach barred to Pallone’s constituents.

The congressman badmouthed Republicans in Congress he says stand against progress.

“All they talk about is how we can’t do anything.,” said the veteran Pallone, dean of the federal Democratic delegation from New Jersey. “I’m so tired of how they say ‘we can’t do this, and we can’t do that.'”

Jumping up to the podium again after Pallone, Murphy criticized Guadagno for recusing herself as Secretary of State at the start of her run for the governorship, from handling a controversial President Donald J. Trump request for “voter information.”

“I just wanted to get that off my chest,” Murphy said.