N.J. governor calls special election to fill Senate seat

(Reuters) - New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday called a special election on October 16 to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

Lautenberg died on Monday at age 89 of viral pneumonia.

"I'm not going to play politics with this," Christie, a Republican who is running for re-election this November, told a news conference at his office in Trenton, N.J. "I want to have an elected senator as soon as possible."

He said a special election will be held on October 16, preceded by a primary election on August 13 to pick the Republican and Democratic nominees.

"I deem it advisable to have a special election. In fact, I deem it necessary," he said.

The primary process is needed to give voters a choice, Christie said.

"I will not permit the insiders and a few party elites to determine who the nominee of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party will be," he said. "A primary election is necessary. The people must choose."

Christie said that under New Jersey law, he could have named someone to fill the remainder of Launtenberg's term through 2014, but he chose not to do so.

"I firmly believe that the decisions that need to be made in Washington are too great to be determined by an appointee for a period of 18 months," he said.

The state of New Jersey will bear the cost of the primary and special election, he said.

"The cost ... in my mind cannot be measured against the value of having an elected representative in the United States Senate where so many consequential issues are being debated and determined this year," he said.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg and Ellen Wulfhorst; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; editing by John Wallace)

http://news.yahoo.com/n-j-governor-calls-special-senate-election-fill-180216507.html