Free Republic

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie appears to have largely moved past the lane-closing scandal that rocked his administration and threatened to derail his political career one year later. But many outside his tight inner circle are still waiting for investigations to conclude before making up their minds. What happens next will depend largely on the outcome of the investigation by the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey into the lane realignments that started a year ago Tuesday on the George Washington Bridge and were apparently hatched by the Republican governor’s aides as political payback. That includes how close they cut to...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie stepped out on the international stage Wednesday to talk trade with Mexico, but he stayed mum on one of the most pressing questions confronting the two countries and his party: immigration reform. On a trip designed to help school him in foreign policy and court Hispanic voters should he seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, Christie stuck to economic issues and spoke of a “North American energy renaïssance” in which the U.S., Mexico and Canada ramp up investments and do away with “foolish” regulations. […] But there was no acknowledgement of the need for...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie pushed back against the idea that police officers had a problem with race when executing their duties as law enforcement officials.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie joined California Republican gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari.... (snip) in town to raise money as chairman of the Republican Governors Association ,," "Kashkari riled the GOP when he admitted he had voted for Obama in 2008, ..(snip)

From the film "All the President's Men": Deep Throat: The people behind all of this were frightened of Muskey and that's what got him destroyed. They wanted to run against McGovern. Look who they're running against. The bugged offices, they followed people, false press leaks, passed fake letters... they canceled Democratic campaign rallies, they investigated Democratic private lives, they planted spies, they stole documents... and now don't tell me that all of this was the work of one Donald Segretti. The source was talking about the Republican party of Richard Nixon. Yesterday, the third major candidate for the GOP presidential...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told an Ocean City, Md., town hall Thursday that he was considering running for president in 2016. “I’m thinking about it,” Christie said in response to a question from a local supporter, according to The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. “It is an enormous decision to make not only for me, but my family,” Christie said, according to the newspaper, saying he would make his decision “probably by the end of this year or the beginning of next.” …

Politicians often are very shrewd investors — with their own money. If Al Gore wanted to move his money around in cash, he’d need a fleet of forklifts. But they’re rotten investors with your money. President Barack Obama had his Solyndra, and New Jersey governor Chris Christie has his casino, Revel, the multibillion-dollar Atlantic City boondoggle that, having declared bankruptcy — twice — just announced that it will be closing its doors and putting its 3,100 employees out of work.

TRENTON — For the second time in two years, Gov. Chris Christie has vetoed a bill that would have banned the dumping of fracking waste in New Jersey. Environmentalists and lawmakers from both parties had championed the measure, which would have prohibited companies from treating, discharging, disposing, and storing waste from hydraulic fracturing — the controversial practice of pumping water, sand, and chemicals deep underground to harvest natural gas. Though an increase in fracking in recent years has caused U.S. energy production to spike, critics worry that the practice could pollute drinking water supplies. And while fracking doesn't happen in...

Gov. Chris Christie trails former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton among New Jersey voters surveyed in a poll about the 2016 presidential race. The Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows Clinton leading the Republican governor 50 to 42 percent. Both are considering 2016 runs but haven't committed.

Judging by the early numbers, the 2016 Republican presidential primaries will be another class and culture war, pitting the GOP’s Sam’s Club base against the Republican country club elite. Think tea party vs. garden party. The fissures of education, income, region, and religion that took their collective toll on Mitt Romney will again weigh heavily on the battle for the Republican nomination. Age also looms as a wildcard, with a generational divide further shaping the contours of the contest. With few exceptions, the Republican establishment prevails over its base. Yet, 2016 may be different, as the GOP becomes ever more...

DENVER — Tom Tancredo isn’t trashing Bob Beauprez, but he’s demanding one of his biggest benefactors, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, come clean about the Republican Governors Association’s influence on Colorado’s GOP gubernatorial primary. On Monday, the Denver Post reported that a campaign finance watchdog group discovered that the RGA, which Christie chairs, funneled money to help Beauprez through the Republican Attorney Generals Association despite its public pledge not to attempt to influence GOP primaries. (SNIP) “We already have a situation in Mississippi where grassroots Republicans feel disenfranchised by party elites. We need to avoid a repeat in Colorado. “Governor...

How will President Obama feel when a Republican wins the governor’s race in his home state of Illinois? Gov. Pat Quinn is facing an increasingly uphill battle against Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner, a new We Ask America poll shows. Rauner is now sitting on a 14-point lead in the poll that was conducted July 28, which is up from his 10-point lead he had in a June poll. Rauner’s boost can be attributed to his economic plan, which includes a state income tax reduction. A poll showed while people don’t believe Illinois can afford this plan, a majority say...

The chairman of the Republican Governors Association (RGA) is refusing to campaign for the GOP's nominee for New York governor. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is heading the GOP's gubernatorial efforts across the nation, was campaigning in Connecticut when reporters asked him whether he would campaign on behalf of Rob Astorino in his race against sitting New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. According to Christie, the answer is a nearly-unqualified no.

Immigration is a complex problem. So is the long-term question of how the United States should handle the influx of tens of thousands of children from Central America. Beyond the legal mandates, we owe them basic human decency. On the other hand, to say that they should all simply stay here for good begs big questions about encouraging more children to make this journey, and the rights of all the people abroad who are waiting their turn in line. Unless you believe in open borders, it’s all thorny. What seems right for an individual child can seem wrong systemwide. But...

GREENWICH, Conn. (AP) -- Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Monday he doesn't have plans to campaign for New York's Republican candidate for governor because he doesn't campaign for candidates he doesn't think can win. Christie was in Greenwich, Connecticut, to raise cash for GOP candidate Tom Foley when he was asked whether he planned to spend any time campaigning in New York, where Republican challenger Rob Astorino, the Westchester County executive, trails incumbent Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo by a large margin in public polls. "You know, I will spend time in places where we have a chance to...

Looking ahead to 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the odds on favorite against Vice President Joe Biden among Iowa Democrats for her party’s nomination. But, she would find a general election matchup against either Kentucky Senator Rand Paul or New Jersey Governor Chris Christie very competitive. Clinton edges former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and has an early lead over Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. There is a wide gender gap in these matchups. Although each of the potential Republican candidates has a more positive than negative rating with GOP...

A close aide to Gov. Chris Christie sent him text messages related to fallout from the lane closures at the George Washington Bridge and later deleted them, she told a legislative committee in Trenton on Thursday. Regina Egea, then the governor's liaison to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said the messages discussed testimony...

Making his first trip to Iowa in more than 940 days, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie declared, "I don't care about being loved. I care about being respected." "I tell them what I think and then everyone else will get to decide. They don't go in there and say, "Are you conservative enough? Are you liberal enough? Are you moderate enough?" That's not what people say, " he said. "They say, "Do I trust him? Can I count on him to tell me the truth? Is he somebody who can be a competent steward of our country's future?""

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie blamed the Obama administration for the influx of immigrant children at the southern border, but didn't rule out the prospect of accepting children in New Jersey on a case-by-case basis. "I have great empathy for that situation, but frankly the administration has done an awful job in securing our border, and they need to do that," Christie told reporters in Marion, Iowa, where he campaigned for incumbent Gov. Terry Branstad. "I don't think ... it matters one bit what your Hispanic population is, as to whether or not you're going to offer help and assistance,"...

New Jersey governor Chris Christie appointed an ethics chief and ombudsman to his administration this week, before traveling to Iowa to headline a Republican Governors Association event that is being seen as an attempt to jump-start his stalled presidential ambitions. Speaking at the RGA event, an organization he leads, is considered Christie’s most public re-entry to the 2016 Republican presidential field since he faced questions about top advisers using lane closures on the George Washington bridge for apparent political payback. The ethics chief’s position grew out of the same scandal. Christie hired attorneys to investigate his own administration and the...