Free Republic

On the third-to-last day that Senator Frank Lautenberg ever voted in the Senate, he joined with 53 of his colleagues to support a compromise on new gun regulations. His vote wasn't enough. Now, Lautenberg's death makes the prospect of revisiting that issue — and a number of other Democratic priorities — substantially trickier. Take the gun legislation. The compromise proposal, which would have expanded background checks to include gun show and online sales, was part of a package that was postponed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid after the failed vote. It's expected to come back before the Senate at...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is swatting down criticism from GOP ranks that he isn’t conservative enough, saying in an interview airing Friday that he’s a “damn good Republican.” “Is it a fair question to ask that if you ran as a Republican for president of the United States, what Republican Party do you see that would support your candidacy out there right now? How would you survive a primary process on the current set-up of the Republican Party?” NBC’s Brian Williams asked Christie, who is considered to be mulling a 2016 run. “Listen, I think very well. I’ll worry...

A new Quinnipiac poll comparing potential Democratic candidates for 2016 comes to a familiar conclusion: Hillary Clinton, if she decides to run, would absolutely dominate the competition. The poll has 65 percent of potential Democratic voters picking Hillary Clinton as their presidential nominee in 2016. That's in line with multiple recent polls — including from Gallup, PPP, and PublicMind — showing Clinton as the overwhelming favorite in a Democratic primary. What's interesting about the Quinnipiac poll is that it conducted a separate survey in which Clinton was removed from the race. Which Democrats come out on top if Clinton decides...

Gov. Chris Christie unveiled gun control and violence prevention measures that are as comprehensive as they are ambitious. Christie acknowledges there is no way to prevent all violence in our society, but he says it is the job of government to question, to scrutinize and to demand more in an attempt to address the problem. The plan calls for expanding New Jersey’s already strict gun control laws, expanding government-funded mental health treatment, making it more difficult for kids buy or rent violent video games, requiring that would-be gun owners show government-issued IDs and bolstering penalties for gun-related crimes. “It’s hard...

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez is holding up a vote in the U.S. Senate on a resolution honoring Margaret Thatcher, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom who died last week after suffering a stroke, multiple sources tell The Daily Caller. While the House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring Thatcher last week, Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, objects to some of the language proposed by Republicans in the Senate’s version, sources said. A copy of the proposed resolution, which would be offered by Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, honors “the life, legacy, and example...

After initially saying he was undecided on the topic, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is against gay conversion therapy. Christie faced criticism when he said earlier in the week he wasn’t sure if he would sign legislation banning the practice on minors. “Governor Christie does not believe in conversion therapy,” spokesman Kevin Roberts said in a statement to the New Jersey Star-Ledger. “There is no mistaking his point of view on this when you look at his own prior statements where he makes clear that people’s sexual orientation is determined at birth.” Gay conversion therapy, also known as reparative therapy,...

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...