Free Republic

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie trails Nikki Haley by just three percentage points for fourth place in a national poll of potential candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in a new Morning Consult poll released today. Haley, who is expected to formally announce her candidacy next week, is at 3%. Christie is at 0% after not registering at all.

The Republican National Committeeman from New Jersey has become an issue in a hotly-contested congressional primary in New Hampshire’s 1st district, where two former Trump administration officials and others are battling for the chance to take on two-term Rep. Chris Pappas in the mid-term elections. Bill Palatucci was one of just a handful of Republican National Committee members who voted against a resolution censuring Rep. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) on Friday for their involvement in an investigation of the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Now former White House Deputy Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wants Matt Mowers,...

A Democratic candidate for Middletown Township Committee initially denied a history of theft and forgery charges, telling party leaders a month ago that he wasn’t the same Nicholas Babcock involved in a series of crimes. Now, one week before Election Day, Babcock has acknowledged that he did plead guilty to bouncing checks in Arizona 20 years ago and was sentenced to two years of probation. The admission comes after weeks of denials and doesn’t include information regarding additional allegations made against him by law enforcement. A records check shows that Babcock had faced theft charges in Arizona in 2002, 2004,...

A former crony of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie pleaded guilty Friday in the “Bridgegate” scandal — and is willing to testify that the fading GOP star knew about crippling lane closures as they were happening, his lawyer said afterward.

Could the GW bridge scandal be causing internal friction at MSNBC? On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough upbraided Chuck Todd for "wild speculation" in the matter. Scarborough's slap at Todd came in response to the NBC political director's suggestion that, based on a photo showing Christie and Wildstein together at a September 11 event--it was "very likely" that Wildstein--in an effort to curry favor with Chris Christie--had told the governor what he had done with the lane closures. View the video here.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, after a low-key initial response to Friday’s explosive allegations about his involvement in a bridge-closing scandal, mounted an aggressive defense late Saturday afternoon, attacking The New York Times and a former political ally in an email to friends and allies obtained by POLITICO. “Bottom line — David Wildstein will do and say anything to save David Wildstein,” the email from the governor’s office says, referring to the former appointee who reignited the controversy.

[Christie appointee David Wildstein] had told someone (in writing) not to worry about the children that the resulting traffic jams were keeping away from school, “They are the children of Buono voters.” Well, turns out he was probably wrong....