The Christie Cometh
This is Chris Christie's moment. The New Jersey governor is touring the country in support of Republican candidates. He's taken on the public sector unions. He's made some hard calls. He speaks in a blunt, confrontational style. Yet he remains popular. Most striking, he's a Republican from the Northeast who has national appeal. Last week Christie won a Tea Party presidential straw poll--in Virginia. In September, he came in second in another straw poll--held in Chicago.
Christie denies any interest in the top job. But he's clearly a born executive. A pro-lifer, he has none of the social-issues baggage that has harmed Northeast Republicans in past primaries. He has a record to be proud of. He's incredibly well spoken. Other than Paul Ryan, I can't think of another Republican officeholder who gets conservatives as excited as Christie does.
Skeptics might say that 2012 is too early for Christie to run for president. After all, he was only elected in 2009. He'll have been in office for only two years when Iowans caucus in 2012. Surely that's not enough time to launch a successful national campaign.
Or is it? The last president from New Jersey, as it happens, won office only two years after becoming governor of the Garden State. I know, Woodrow Wilson isn't a popular name to throw around these days. But Wilson was a progressive Democrat; the current governor of New Jersey is a conservative Republican. And America could do a lot worse than a President Christie. In fact, it already is.
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Sep '10
Re: The Christie Cometh
I'm mixed on Christie in 2012. Clearly, our nation needs this type of strong, optimistic, "get it done" conservative leadership, but is he ready to take on a far greater challenge of the federal bureaucracy. Taking on the NJ teachers union is admirably (and overdue), but the SEIU is another animal entirely. If he stays in NJ until 2016 and continues building a record of change and progress, he'll be a shoe-in for President.
But can we afford Obama from 2012 to 2016? We've become such a cynical, divided, disfunctional country in his first 2 years, the thought of a second Obama term scares me.
May '10
Re: The Christie Cometh
Vance Richards: The education money my town used to get from the state now goes to Newark and Camden. So, even though our teachers took a pay freeze, my property taxes went up about $600 a year under Christie.
I am hopeful that Christie's plans will work long-term......
Isn't it up to the local government to stop the spending? Why should the state collect cash from everyone and then send it back to the local towns?
We had the same thing in Minnesota- the DFL legislature had pushed a bunch of school district support up to the state level, in hopes that the slush funds would make teacher union blackmail easier. The first thing Pawlenty did in ofrfice was chop state support to local school districts, combined with a cap on property tax increases. That squeezed the funds available to the unions unless they could sell a local school bond issue. If the locals were dumb enough to vote "yes", they had it coming.
May '10
Re: The Christie Cometh
Jeanne Patterson: 1) Remember- during the NJ primaries, Christie was the RINO, and was criticized by the TEA Party enthusiasts as being insufficiently pure
Huh? Having attended 2 Pennsylvania Tea Party Christie-for-Governor events in NJ, I'm having trouble remembering any of this purity talk. In fact, there were representatives from various states' Tea Party groups at these events to show support of Christie.
This was NJ after all. And nothing like it is now. Heck, I heard more than one person say they wished the GOP hadn't chosen such a "right-winger" as a candidate. ยท Oct 13 at 8:30pm
Jeanne, I don't mean to argue the point, but my understanding was that Lonegan was considered the more conservative candidate, with Christie more the darling of the establishment- Rudy G, etc. For example, here:
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/05/26/n-j-governors-race-chris-christies-opponents-protest-hannity/