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Here's something of a surprise given Chris Christie's last-second Sandy-fueled embrace of President Obama during the final days of the 2012 presidential election, via Politico: Romney, whose supporters and aides were furious that Christie complimented the president’s response to Hurricane Sandy, has given the maximum contribution possible, $3,800, to the New Jersey governor’s reelection bid, a source familiar with the donation said. We probably shouldn't make too much of a $3,800 check—Romney didn't exactly have to sit down with his family and rework his budget to carve out the cash, and he's cut plenty of such checks in the past—but...

IN POLITICS, snubs are more important than invites. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican and social conservative, has been refused a speaking spot at the Conservative Political Action Conference to be held this week just outside Washington. CPAC, as it is known, is the Ames Straw Poll without the fun. The Ames Straw Poll held in Iowa has free drinks, free eats, free face painting and free country music followed by a bunch of speeches and a meaningless presidential straw poll. CPAC has a bunch of speeches and a meaningless presidential straw poll. Previous CPAC straw poll winners have...

Hard to argue with that assessment today of all days, but … Mitt Romney’s also been invited this year. The future doesn’t get any more limited than that. Also, since when is one’s prospects in the GOP a litmus test for whether you’re CPAC-worthy or not? Every time someone objects to GOPround’s exclusion, the rejoinder inevitably comes that it’s the “Conservative Political Action Conference,” not the “Republican Political Action Conference.” Okay, in that case, who cares about Christie’s future in the GOP? Either his ideas are conservative enough or they aren’t. Verdict: They aren’t. Or rather, one isn’t. New Jersey...

Chris Christie is immensely popular and is a huge favorite for reelection in New Jersey this year, with voters from across the political spectrum giving him the thumbs up. When it comes to the national conservative base, though, the governor is at risk of earning a different one-finger salute. Christie is already on probation with some conservatives for his praise of President Obama’s work on Hurricane Sandy in the closing days of the 2012 election — something a few critics have even suggested put the president over the top. Now the potential 2016 presidential contender has lashed out at the...

Let me say on the record that I don’t really care about New Jersey. I know very little about it. But, I know this much: I don’t want to live there and I don’t want the rest of the United States to resemble New Jersey. For me New Jersey is the Joe Piscopo character asking anyone and everyone “Are you from Jersey? I’m from Jersey.” Also, I’ve never seen the TV show “Jersey Shore,” but still I don’t like it. And know that I don’t want the rest of the country to resemble it, either. It’s the state that elected...

Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., called for a comprehensive approach to reducing gun violence Wednesday on "CBS This Morning," saying, "If all we talk about is just controlling guns, which we should talk about, then we're not doing enough." Christie said, "In New Jersey, we have the second toughest gun laws in America already," but suggested that restrictions on firearms are insufficient. The governor decried the "stigma about mental illness treatment in this country" that prevents mentally ill people from seeking help as one contributing factor to gun violence. He also spoke to the need to "talk about substance abuse" and...

In the aftermath of last month’s Superstorm Sandy, the way New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie handled the disaster by working with President Barack Obama left some conservatives questioning Christie’s motives and political future. One of Christie’s fellow New Jerseyans, HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher, spoke highly of Christie. Maher is an outspoken liberal, donated $1 million to Obama’s reelection bid and may not be an endorsement that Christie would otherwise seek out. On Current TV’s “Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer,” Maher explained his admiration for the current New Jersey governor. “You know, on the one hand you have people...

Is this the case of a broken heart? And, if so, whose? The Huffington Post reports that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declined attending a Sunday campaign event for Republican Presidential nominee and his onetime best political best bud former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. And from the quote from a Romney bigwig in the HP story, Team Romney is NOT happy: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was effusive in his praise of President Barack Obama when the two leaders toured damage from Hurricane Sandy last week, turned down a request by Mitt Romney to appear with him at a...

I really hope you hold accountable every conservative writer you see in the next few days freaking out over “Obama winning Ohio!” because this is ridiculously apocryphal; anyone who has ever lived in the buckeye state should know it is going to award its 18 electoral votes to Mitt Romney this year and it won’t even be close. Look for Romney’s win to be a 54% to 46% blowout for Republicans. That’s because Ohio is not a swing state this time around…since Obama’s deliberate push to the Left over the last four years has forced a pendulum correction shift that...

While all national attention is focused — indeed riveted — on the seven to nine swing or battleground states, a major shift is taking place in the rest of the country: Voters are turning off Obama and onto Romney. In the forty states where the Obama campaign has not spread toxic negative ads against Romney, the Republican is gaining by leaps and bounds and will likely carry a bunch of “non-swing” normally blue states. Specifically, Romney is now three points ahead in Pennsylvania, one point behind in Michigan, and only two points behind in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Together, these four...

This year’s cast of GOP convention speakers could be future rivals, each jockeying for prime positioning in case 2016 opens up, Republican strategist Steve Schmidt said on MSNBC Monday night. The emerging five: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Rep. Paul Ryan. “All of these people in their own right are people who may have presidential aspirations and the ability to run a formidable campaign,” he said. “You maybe see the next generation of rivalries in the Republican Party.… You may see them all previewing what’s going...

A fundraiser Mitt Romney held Wednesday for New Jersey state Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R) brought in $400,000, a campaign aide said. Romney traveled to Bernardsville, N.J., for the $5,000-per-plate dinner, where about 80 supporters showed up. A close friend and ally of Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.), another Romney backer, Kyrillos is running to unseat Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who is seeking his second term in the Senate. Christie has been fundraising for Kyrillos, too, but Menendez has a more than 4-to-1 advantage over Kyrillos in cash on hand.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)'s lead over his likely Republican opponent has narrowed to 9 points, a new poll showed. Menendez takes 44 percent to 35 for state Sen. Joe Kyrillos (R) in a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday. Eight in 10 New Jersey voters don't know enough about Kyrillos to form an opinion, but 35 percent have a favorable opinion. Menendez's approval, meanwhile, climbed from 42 percent in October to 45 in April — within the margin of error. A Rutgers-Eagleton poll released in February had Menendez up 22 points on Kyrillos, but pollsters in the state have been anticipating...

Gov. Chris Christie tonight helped rake in $600,000 at the first fundraiser of Republican state Sen. Joe Kyrillos' bid to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez. More than 500 people were expected to attend $250 a plate dinner at PNC Arts Center in Holmdel. Besides Christie and Kyrillos, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore were on the bill. Kyrillos (R-Monmouth) acknowledged the one-term incumbent will have the fundraising advantage, but said his supporters believe he's the candidate to turnaround the state's unemployment and underemployment rate, the debt crisis and America's standing in the world. “I’m...

New Jersey Sen. Joseph Kyrillos announced Thursday he intends to seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate to run against Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez in November. The 51-year-old Monmouth County legislator said he converted his federal exploratory committee to a campaign account and will formally announce his candidacy soon. "As the father of two young children, I believe we can and must restore the limitless opportunities and freedom that made America great and inspired people like my own father to immigrate to this country," Kyrillos said in a statement. Menendez campaign consultant Brad Lawrence responded late Thursday, saying, "New Jersey's...

Forget about Mitt Romney vs. Newt Gingrich. In a tantalizing GOP undercard, Sarah Palin is now picking a fight with Chris Christie after the New Jersey governor and top Romney backer called Gingrich an "embarrassment" to the GOP. Christie made the charge about the former House speaker Sunday in an interview on NBC's "Meet The Press.""I think Newt Gingrich has embarrassed the party over time," Christie said, referring to an ethics fine Gingrich paid and his being "run out of the speakership by his own party." "Whether he'll do it again in the future, I don't know. But Gov. Romney...

As the race for the Republican presidential nomination hots up, the candidates have been dropping hints about their possible running mates. Newt Gingrich today said he would 'certainly' consider asking Sarah Palin to join him on the ballot, while Mitt Romney was accompanied on a campaign stop this morning by Chris Christie, the popular Governor of New Jersey. Both those GOP heavyweights were thought of as potential candidates for the top job before announcing that they did not intend to run. Mr Christie endorsed the frontrunner Mr Romney in October, but Mrs Palin has yet to give her support to...

Larry Sabato, an election prognosticator, predicts another candidate may jump in the race in February. He also says the Republican nominating process may go all the way to the convention in late summer. Sabato says since a lot of February primaries have moved up to January not much is going on voting-wise that month. This may lead to another candidate, Republican or third-party, jumping in the race. "I think for the Republicans, they would go back to the big stars who said no. Chris Christie," Sabato said on FOX News this afternoon. "We'll go over this many times between now...

Someone attempted to grill New Jersey Governor Chris Christie at a town hall again, and thanks to that brave (or some would say, attention-seeking) soul, the media has a new viral video of the Governor getting sassy with a constituent. This time, the town hall attendant asked whether the governor planted questions at town hall meetings, citing a situation where he saw someone ask a question at another event who claimed to be a friend of Christie’s. After scolding him for “wasting time,” Christie asked, “if I plant questions, why the hell did I call on you?”

So. A man who wasn't running for president isn't running for president and won't be trying to run for president. Got that? Still awake there, at the back? In front of the starried ranks of America's finest political press corps, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie finally put an end to the weeks of frenzied speculation about his White House ambitions. "Now is not my time", he told reporters. "New Jersey, whether you like it or not, you are stuck with me." Moment in the spotlight Clearly relishing his big moment on the national stage, the Governor admitted he had been...