As Chris Christie’s eight tumultuous years as governor of New Jersey come to an end, voters must choose between a Christie protégé and a Jon Corzine clone to succeed him.

The Post endorses Republican Kim Guadagno — because overtaxed Garden Staters simply can’t afford yet another spendthrift Democrat.

Despite her experience in government and law-enforcement, Guadagno is being dragged down by the weight of the state’s most unpopular governor. That’s a shame.

For all his failures, Christie has been a far better governor than his poll numbers suggest. He pushed through a property-tax cap, limited teacher tenure and expanded charter schools. And he did more to shore up the state’s still-precarious pension fund than the five previous governors combined.

Most important, he changed the nature of the debate on public unions, taxes and education by his unabashed willingness to openly confront entrenched interests.

Democrat Phil Murphy has made clear he’d do no such thing. He is slavishly in thrall to the unions — particularly to the New Jersey Education Association, which adamantly opposes any more benefits reform.

Even the Star-Ledger, which endorsed him, raises “doubts about his judgment and concern that he may have made promises to the union behind closed doors in return for its support.”

That’s putting it mildly: Murphy has signed on to the full hard-left agenda — $15 minimum wage for both private and public sector, free community college tuition and a raft of other promises totaling billions — to be paid by a “millionaire’s tax.”

It’s the age-old Democratic formula: Solve every problem by throwing more money at it. In New Jersey especially, that’s proved disastrous.

Not surprisingly, his math doesn’t add up: Murphy’s “solution” doesn’t even come close to funding his wish list. Most disturbing is that he apparently doesn’t consider reducing Jersey’s highest-in-the-nation property taxes a priority.

We call him a Corzine clone, and that’s accurate. Like the ex-governor, he’s a former Goldman Sachs exec with little government experience (he was also ambassador to Germany). But Corzine showed that Wall Street experience is no guarantee of fiscal common sense.

Guadagno, by contrast, understands New Jersey’s priorities and has made cutting property taxes her key issue. Her fiscal instincts are both conservative and fiscally sound, focusing on spending restraint and cost-savings. Moreover, only a Republican governor can possibly act as a check on the free-spending Democratic-controlled Legislature.

More important, she is far more likely to stand up to the public unions, which are eager to return to the days when their every wish was Trenton’s command. Unfortunately, she stands in Christie’s shadow, unreservedly loyal (as lieutenant governors are expected to be), without having had a chance to show what she can do.

Yet she remains a far safer bet than Murphy, with his profound weaknesses and a mindset that’s wedded to discredited and fiscally dangerous policies.

Kim Guadagno offers the hope of responsible government. She’s the better choice by far.