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Once considered apoliticalpitbull capable of returning the Republican Party back to the White House, Christie’s prospects for the presidency have all but fizzled.A series of political missteps by the east coast governor, including over-courting Democrats while ignoring fellow Republican candidates, have created self-imposed setbacks for his presidential aspirations. However, a badly timed report last week involving “Bridge-Gate” may have sealed the deal on Christie’s fate.
Christie’s former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Kelly and his Port Authority Deputy Director Bill Baroni, were each charged last Friday with conspiracy and fraud in the scheme to close lanes and purposely create traffic tie-ups on the George Washington Bridge back in 2013. David Wildstein, a former Christie ally and Port Authority appointee plead guilty to political retribution against the Fort Lee, NJ mayor who did not back Gov. Christie in his re-election campaign 2 years ago.
“They agreed to and did use public resources to carry out a vendetta and exact retribution,” U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Paul Fishman said in a press conference, adding that the scheme “callously victimized the people of Fort Lee,” who were just trying to go about their lives.
Although Christie wasn’t directly implicated in the bridge closing scheme, he was widely seen as the force behind the political game that snarled bridge traffic for miles. The cases against Christie’s associates who plotted the lane closures, “just reinforces the public perception of a Christie credibility gap,” said Joseph McQuaid, publisher of the Union Leader newspaper and a longtime conservative kingmaker in New Hampshire.
Unbiased Political News
Now with indictments against his former aides just starting to heat up, Christie’s campaign handlers are fearful of months of split-screen television images, with one half showing Gov. Christie out campaigning and the other displaying juicy details of the trials of his aides. For almost any candidate, that type of negative coverage is all but political death.
Aides believe Christie will still announce his run for the presidency in late May or June, but some in the Republican establishment wonder if he will, or should run at all. In recent months, Christie has fallen from the high of his re-election in 2013, has become unpopular at home, has barely registered in national Republican polls, and is far behind in securing the same levels of money and momentum as his competitors. If that’s not enough, a new poll provides an enormous sea of doubt.
A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll revealed that 57% of Republican primary voters would not support Christie, which is the highest negative number among potential GOP candidates other than Donald Trump. With these numbers, influential party figures and donors have taken note and started to publicly write him off.
Following Friday’s indictments, Alex Castellanos, who advised Mitt Romney in 2008, summed up the views of Mr. Christie’s detractors: “Now we’ve learned that his political style is contagious. He infected his own government with it. I’m not sure how he could prove that it would be otherwise if he were elected president.”
Despite it all, Christie has tried to remain outwardly upbeat and optimistic, but signs of frustration have been evident. Amongst the governor and those closest to him, there’s a growing mood that his bid for the White House seems increasingly far-fetched. In fact, many of his closest allies and advisers acknowledge that winning the Republican nomination would require a domino-like series of stumbles from his rivals and an unlikely breakthrough for him.
Unfortunately for Christie, he seems to be the one stumbling.
