Democratic gubernatorial candidate Barbara Buono didn’t mince words on the campaign trail today, linking Governor Christie’s economic policies to those of failed GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.

Christie, a Republican, offers only the same trickle-down economic policies that Romney tried to sell to voters during his unsuccessful bid for U.S. president last year, Buono said during a stop at Karnak Corporation, a roof-coating manufacturer in Clark.

“It’s the Romney economy in a fleece,” she told a group of Teamsters inside the facility.

“We know where that has left us,” she said. ”At the bottom of the barrel.”

Buono, a longtime state senator from Middlesex County, called for a redirection of tax incentives to small businesses instead of big corporations.

She also accused Christie of putting national presidential ambitions ahead of what’s best for New Jersey, citing his veto of a minimum wage hike and his lowering of a tax credit for low-wage workers.

“There’s only one person running for governor and she’s standing right here,” Buono said.

Sarah Jane Jelin, the president of Karnak, introduced Buono, who she once worked alongside when both were law clerks.

“I know as a businessperson, we need a vibrant middle class,” Jelin said. “This is something Chris Christie just doesn’t understand.”

Christie held an education event in Newark earlier Wednesday with Mayor Cory Booker. Christie campaign spokesman Kevin Roberts responded to Buono’s criticism by saying the governor turned the state’s economy around ”from the total disaster it was” under former Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine.

“Under Governor Christie, we had the best year of job creation in a decade, and unemployment is at its lowest level since Buono’s time as budget chair (in the late 2000s),” Roberts said.   ”We still have more work to do, but Sen. Buono has offered nothing but a return to the failed Corzine-era policies she loves so much.”

He also said her comparison of Christie to Romney “doesn’t even make any sense.”