Before 2016, Christie has to position himself carefully
If there's a to-do list for a politician with 2016 presidential
aspirations, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie can tick off quite a few
items. Re-election landslide: check. Victory lap of political chat
shows: check. Late-night TV and prime-time sitcom appearances: check.
Opinion polls showing he's in the lead for the GOP nomination: check.
Too bad the primaries don't start now. Christie has two years until he can try to convert his popularity among Republicans into primary delegates. Now what does he do?
Christie hasn't said he will run for president, but most of his constituents — along with plenty of political pundits — expect that he will. Fifty-nine percent of New Jerseyites say he will seek the presidency in 2016, according to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll taken this month.
To preserve that prospect, Christie has to walk a fine line: He must maintain the political momentum he has been steadily gaining since he came to national attention during Superstorm Sandy last year without risking overexposure or becoming viewed as the "inevitable" GOP nominee.
After his 60% romp over Democrat Barbara Buono in this month's election, Christie appeared on four Sunday talk shows, dropped by Jimmy Fallon and did a cameo on The Michael J. Fox Show. He held a full-scale news conference the day after Election Day. At a gathering of corporate CEOs on Monday, he called Obamacare "the most extraordinary overreach of government power in the history of our country.'' Thursday, he will become chairman of the Republican Governors' Association at its annual meeting in Arizona. (His office declined to comment for this article.)
Christie won't stay as much in the center ring as he has been for the past month, says Dan Schnur, who worked for Sen. John McCain in 2000 when the Arizona Republican started the primary contests red-hot but lost the nomination to George W. Bush. "There's an inevitable ebb and flow over the course of a primary campaign. He's not going to avoid that. But starting as the front-runner is a much better place to be than not being the front-runner.''
The aura of inevitability can send primary voters into the arms of other candidates, as Mitt Romney learned In 2012. GOP primary voters turned from Herman Cain to Newt Gingrich to Rick Perry to Rick Santorum before finally settling on Romney – but the speed-dating took a toll on the eventual nominee. Christie's New Jersey record of bipartisan cooperation and his decision to abandon appeals to a court ruling allowing gay marriage in the state mark him as a moderate in the GOP. As a result, he would probably face challenges on the right from libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, outgoing RGA president Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Pennsylvania senator Santorum, a hero of religious conservatives.
Too bad the primaries don't start now. Christie has two years until he can try to convert his popularity among Republicans into primary delegates. Now what does he do?
Christie hasn't said he will run for president, but most of his constituents — along with plenty of political pundits — expect that he will. Fifty-nine percent of New Jerseyites say he will seek the presidency in 2016, according to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll taken this month.
To preserve that prospect, Christie has to walk a fine line: He must maintain the political momentum he has been steadily gaining since he came to national attention during Superstorm Sandy last year without risking overexposure or becoming viewed as the "inevitable" GOP nominee.
After his 60% romp over Democrat Barbara Buono in this month's election, Christie appeared on four Sunday talk shows, dropped by Jimmy Fallon and did a cameo on The Michael J. Fox Show. He held a full-scale news conference the day after Election Day. At a gathering of corporate CEOs on Monday, he called Obamacare "the most extraordinary overreach of government power in the history of our country.'' Thursday, he will become chairman of the Republican Governors' Association at its annual meeting in Arizona. (His office declined to comment for this article.)
Christie won't stay as much in the center ring as he has been for the past month, says Dan Schnur, who worked for Sen. John McCain in 2000 when the Arizona Republican started the primary contests red-hot but lost the nomination to George W. Bush. "There's an inevitable ebb and flow over the course of a primary campaign. He's not going to avoid that. But starting as the front-runner is a much better place to be than not being the front-runner.''
The aura of inevitability can send primary voters into the arms of other candidates, as Mitt Romney learned In 2012. GOP primary voters turned from Herman Cain to Newt Gingrich to Rick Perry to Rick Santorum before finally settling on Romney – but the speed-dating took a toll on the eventual nominee. Christie's New Jersey record of bipartisan cooperation and his decision to abandon appeals to a court ruling allowing gay marriage in the state mark him as a moderate in the GOP. As a result, he would probably face challenges on the right from libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, outgoing RGA president Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Pennsylvania senator Santorum, a hero of religious conservatives.
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