After years of testing the national political waters as a charismatic governor from the north-east, Chris Christie announced on Tuesday that he would seek the White House, setting up what would either be a spectacular comeback or a summary conclusion to a turbulent career.
Christie announced his candidacy in a conference call with donors and close supporters in his home state of New Jersey.
“Going back to where you were when you were 15, or 16, or 17 years old, and to be able to stand in front of that group of people and offer yourself to the presidency is a really, really amazing moment,” Christie was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.
Christie is due to deliver a speech to several thousand supporters at a New Jersey high school on Tuesday. Teachers planned a protest outside his announcement event at Livingston high school, however, saying Christie had broken a promise to protect their pensions and insulted them in the process.
During Christie’s tenure, a budget crisis in New Jersey has deepened, leading to a record nine credit downgrades for the state by the Moody’s ratings agency.
Pressure from the budget crisis has mixed with controversies of a more personal flavor to wreck Christie’s approval rating, which now bumps along at 30%, down from a high of near 70% in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, when the governor’s tireless meetings and appearance of decision in crisis drove a popularity surge in a state that suffered billions of dollars in damages from the storm.
Lately voters in the Garden State have been recalling things about their governor that they like less. His abrasive handling of constituents who challenge him at town hall meetings has helped to win him national visibility, but a reputation at home as a bully.
Public frustration with his perceived lack of candor on the involvement of his staff and close associates in the closure of access lanes to the George Washington bridge in September 2013, meanwhile, produced a double-digit slide in his approval rating. One former Christie friend – a classmate at Livingston high school – has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and said the lane closures were retribution for a political favor that was not extended.
Christie has been a divisive figure from the start. In an early campaign, to become a county official from his northern New Jersey home, Christie settled a lawsuit with multiple opponents who accused him of defamation in his campaign attacks. As US attorney for the district of New Jersey, Christie was praised for collaring corrupt officials – and accused of taking partisan marching orders from the George W Bush White House that had appointed him to the post, despite his having no experience as a prosecutor.
The latest controversy to attend Christie’s life as a public servant, however, has proven the most damaging to his reputation, leaving him so unpopular in his home state that New Jersey Republicans said in a recent survey that they would rather support Wisconsin governor Scott Walker for president.
Some Christie supporters fear that what looked like a window of opportunity for Christie in 2016 has now closed, as better financed candidates with a similar moderate profile and potential establishment appeal – former Florida governor Jeb Bush, for example – have joined the race.
Christie’s nascent campaign, meanwhile, has pointed out that he is a rare Republican with proven success in a blue state, and has argued that Christie has an opportunity to register in national polls with a star turn in the Republican presidential debates.
That theory, however, was endangered by rules that potentially could close the debates to all but the top 10 candidates. Polling averages show Christie hanging just around the cutoff, with support in the low-single digits.
