Free Republic

<p>New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will speak at U.S. Rep. Steve King’s annual pheasant hunt in Iowa this month — but he won’t be shooting game himself.</p> <p>Ann Trimble-Ray, an advisor to the King reelection campaign, said Christie will be present at a fundraising luncheon in Iowa on Saturday, but he won’t be hunting because he’s on a campaign swing visiting other candidates.</p>

Chris Christie might have millions of admirers across the country, people who love the Jersey governor's blunt style. But among the Republican media and political elites who populate Morning Joe, Christie's a no-hoper. That's what Joe Scarborough divulged on today's Morning Joe. Said Scarborough: "off the air in Republican circles . . . nobody thinks Christie can win." View the video here.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made dueling pitches Thursday in Pennsylvania’s race for governor, appealing to voters in a state that could factor into potential 2016 presidential campaigns. Clinton implored Pennsylvania Democrats to back Tom Wolf’s gubernatorial campaign in large numbers, warning against complacency despite his large lead in the polls against Republican Gov. Tom Corbett. “You never know what can happen in an election,” she said. […] The governor’s race served as a backdrop for Clinton and Christie, who secured exposure in a state likely to be an important trophy in...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie could be forgiven if he had chips on both shoulders as big as those shoulders. This year, the first of his second term, has been overshadowed by often partisan investigations, more protracted than productive, of the involvement of several of his former aides — he fired them — in the closing of some access lanes to the George Washington Bridge.

Despite calls by party leaders for would-be presidential candidates keep the gloves on, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is privately disparaging Chris Christie as the “Rudy Giuliani of this cycle,” to donors, according to a new Politico report that suggests a particularly nasty fight among GOP candidates is brewing even before the start of the 2016 campaign season. The report, quoting multiple sources, noted that Cruz is making the comparison to potential donors as he tries to expand his appeal beyond conservative Tea Partiers and access the easy campaign cash the flows most readily to those candidates with the highest...

Gov. Christie's job approval rating dropped to 46 percent among New Jersey voters, one of his lowest, in a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. At the same time, President Obama's approval rating hit an all-time low in New Jersey of 41 percent among registered voters, according to a Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press poll also released Wednesday.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) says he could be a presidential candidate in 2016. The outspoken two-term Senator, known as a foreign policy hawk, told the Weekly Standard that if the hawks aren't well-represented when the 2016 fields begin to solidify, he might throw his hat into the ring. ... When the Weekly Standard's Stephen F. Hayes asked Graham if he'd back a run by Sen. Marco Rubio, he took a shot at the Florida Republican whom he worked with on the Senate immigration bill. "He's a good guy, but after doing immigration with him - we don't need...

I’ve been mostly ignoring the various “Romney 2016!” trial balloons floated by various parties over the last six months or so (including by some of my dear friends, alas), but now that someone as sober and well-informed as Byron York has weighed in with a “this could happen” column, it’s worth saying something about why the possibility keeps coming up. Part of the answer can be found in Henry Olsen’s helpful analysis, from earlier this year, of how exactly Republican presidential primaries tend to shake out. Olsen offered a four-group typology of G.O.P. primary voters — secular conservatives, religious conservatives,...

The View’s alleged Republican, Nicolle Wallace, probably thinks she did NJ Gov. Chris Christie a favor when she endorsed him today. Wallace, who has been a perennial Palin basher since she worked on the ill-fated McCain-Palin campaign in 2008, described Christie as “progressive.”

The U.S. Justice Department investigation into New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s role in “Bridgegate” has thus far uncovered no information he either knew in advance or directed the closure of traffic lanes on the George Washington Bridge, federal officials tell NBC 4 New York. The September 2013 closures—where several entrance lanes to the George Washington Bridge in Ft. Lee were shut down causing a traffic nightmare for commuters—has been the subject of several federal and state investigations. […] According to one former federal prosecutor, who had no involvement in any of the probes into the bridge closure, investigations of this...

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Thom Tillis is getting help from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as part of Christie's multiple-stop swing through the Carolinas to raise money and meet voters. Christie and Tillis were slated to hold a meet-and-greet Tuesday morning in Wilmington before holding a private fundraiser for Tillis' campaign. Christie will head on to South Carolina for several fundraisers on behalf of incumbent Gov. Nikki Haley, who is seeking re-election this fall.

Jersey City will mark a new chapter in its pursuit of reintegrating ex-convicts when distinguished federal and state officials join Mayor Steve Fulop for the grand opening of a prisoner re-entry center next week. Martin's Place, located at 398 Martin Luther King Dr., will open its doors with a special ceremony Monday from 10 a.m. to noon, as U.S. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will be on hand.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services cut New Jersey's credit rating one notch to A on Wednesday because of concerns about budgetary pressure from the state's underfunded public pension system. The action makes New Jersey the second-lowest rated U.S. state for S&P, behind only Illinois, rated A-minus with a negative outlook. S&P also rates California A, but that state's outlook is positive. It was the eight consecutive downgrade for New Jersey, but S&P's action contained a silver lining: the rating agency removed a warning of possible further downgrades in the near term and revised its outlook to stable from negative.

Republican Gov. Chris Christie's administration issued a directive Monday allowing the state's casinos and racetracks to offer sports betting, a move likely to be challenged in court by sports leagues. The governor said he took his cue from previous federal court rulings that found that nothing in New Jersey law prohibits the casinos and horse racing tracks from offering sports betting, so long as it's not sponsored or licensed by the state. Soon afterward, one racetrack, Monmouth Park in Oceanport, said it was preparing to offer sports bets "in the very, very near future."

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.” …