Christie touts conservative creds to Iowa Republicans looking to 2016

Complete coverage of the Iowa Freedom Summit can be found here at The Des Moines Register

DES MOINES, Iowa — Gov. Chris Christie stepped on stage today at the conservative Iowa Freedom Summit to a warm welcome from the event’s co-host and polite applause from the crowd. And not surprisingly, the New Jersey governor stood apart from the crowded parade of big-name speakers. Christie, leaving little doubt he’s primed for a 2016… Read the rest of this entry »

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The YouTube Governor, Decoded

Any day now, Gov. Chris Christie is expected to formally announce that he’s exploring a presidential run. In six years he has gone from a relatively unknown US Attorney in New Jersey to a household name around the country. He did it by running a sophisticated media operation that capitalized on his charm, temper and ability… Read the rest of this entry »

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What If Hillary Didn’t Run?

WASHINGTON — It is a truth universally acknowledged that while the Republicans have too many candidates for 2016, the Democrats have too few. If Hillary Clinton doesn’t run or her presidential campaign implodes, the thinking goes, her party has no bench, no backup, no Plan B. The list of Democrats who have publicly suggested they might… Read the rest of this entry »

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Is Christie headed for a great fall?

By Art Gallagher

Graphic by Robert Hazelrigg. Click on photo for RobertHazelrigg.com

Prominent New Jersey Republicans seem to finally be moving out of Governor Chris Christie’s shadow.

This afternoon The Star Ledger reported that Monmouth County State Senator Joe Kyrillos was among the 15 or so New Jersey Republicans who met with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a top rival of Christie’s for the 2016 GOP Presidential nomination, last week at a dinner hosted by Lawrence E. Bathgate.  Bathgate, an Ocean County attorney, is one of the top Republican fundraisers in the nation.  Also attending the dinner held at the Union Club in Manhattan was Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr, according to The Record’s Charles Stile, who first reported the event.

Such potential defections from the Christie camp were unthinkable just 15 months ago.  Christie’s attempt at ousting Kean as Senate Minority Leader immediately following his 2013 re-election, and the resulting fallout as Kean, Jr’s father, the former Governor, went national in criticizing Christie can explain the younger Kean’s flirtation with the Bush campaign.

But Kyrillos being anything other than solidly in Christie’s corner is big news.  Their relationship was personal before it was political.  Christie introduced Kyrillos to his wife Susan. He swore Christie into his first elected office, Morris County Freeholder. Kyrillos was the Chairman of the Christie for Governor campaign in 2009.

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Clinton talks to be co-hosted by foreign bank investigated by US

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton, the presumed frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, will give a pair of speeches Wednesday in Canada hosted by a major bank that has been the subject of several investigations into wrongdoing over the past dozen years. Clinton and the bank refused to say if she’s being paid for the speeches. But… Read the rest of this entry »

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Republicans don’t want Christie to run for president, say Bush and Romney should, poll says

WASHINGTON — Republicans would rather have former governors Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee seek their 2016 presidential nomination than current Gov. Chris Christie, according to a CBS News poll. Just 29 percent of Republicans surveyed said they wanted to see Christie seek the White House, while 44 percent said they wanted him to stay… Read the rest of this entry »

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Walker Takes A Jab At Christie

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker kept his state of the state address lighthearted and upbeat Tuesday night, making several references to the Green Bay Packers. But the Republican governor also took a jab at New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and referenced potential White House ambitions, amid talk that Walker will launch a 2016 presidential campaign. “And how… Read the rest of this entry »

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Chris Christie preparing to set up leadership PAC for 2016 presidential campaign, report says

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie could be setting up a leadership political action committee before the end of the month to help raise money with an eye toward the White House in 2016, according to a published report. Christie, who concluded his fifth State of the State address today, would use the PAC to finance political… Read the rest of this entry »

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N.J. Democrats call Christie’s speech a ‘State of the State about nothing’

Sen Loretta Weinberg

Dems blast Christie’s 2015 “State of the State about nothing.” Top Democratic lawmakers blast New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s 2015 State of the State Address, calling it a speech “about nothing” and criticizing a news release from the governor’s office that boasted about the number of Facebook likes the governor has and the number of times… Read the rest of this entry »

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Has Trenton turned Christie upside down?

Jim McGreevey is Governor Christie’s Ethical Compass?

Govenor Chris Christie at his Belmar Town Hall on July 31. Photo by Art Gallagher

In the summer of 2004, U.S. Attorney Chris Christie had Governor Jim McGreevey on the ropes.  McGreevey was “State Official #1,” an unindicted co-conspirator in a pay for play scheme that nabbed Democratic fund-raiser David D’Amiano.  A few weeks later McGreevey was resigning, purportedly because he was a “Gay American” who gave his boyfriend an important homeland security job that he wasn’t qualified to perform.

Yesterday, a decade later, Governor Christie is hanging his hat, and his orange sweater, on a McGreevey Executive Order that exempts the Governor from New Jersey’s ethics laws against accepting gifts.

Chris Christie marched into Trenton promising to turn the place upside down. Five years later McGreevey is Christie’s ethical compass.   Not the man McGreevey has become over the last 10 years.  Christie’s ethical compass is the man he investigated and probably could have indicted and convicted.  To paraphrase Christie on the stump for Mitt Romney two years ago, something got turned upside down in Trenton, but it wasn’t the culture of government that Christie promised he would impact and overturn.

About the best thing we can say about Christie accepting gifts of travel on private jets and seats in owner’s boxes at NFL games is at least it was family friendly entertainment with the cameras running, unlike the alleged entertainment U.S. Senator Bob Menendez flew off to on a friend’s private jet.

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