So, Chris Christie makes it official — he’s in the race and mainstream Republicans are ecstatic.
But should they be? New Jersey has become a consistently Democratic and Republicans, when forced to run in a contested primary, are forced to run to their right, making them less palatable to the general public.
And while the public is angry over the state of the state and not particularly pleased with Jon Corzine’s efforts, he doesn’t face the kind of deep anger we’ve seen directed at Jim Florio.
I want to point readers toward this quote from today’s Star-Ledger:
Christie could face trouble in the GOP primary, political experts said, drawing a parallel between a Christie-Lonegan matchup and the 2001 primary battle, when the party favorite, Bob Franks, was defeated by conservative Bret Schundler.
“The Republican primary can be captured by a conservative with a grassroots organization” like Lonegan’s Americans for Prosperity, said Joseph Marbach, a political scientist at Seton Hall University. He said Christie needs to “show he’s conservative enough” and has a good chance to beat Corzine.
What’s missing? A paragraph that explains what happened to Schundler in the general election. What happened? He lost in a landslide.
That was followed by Corzine’s rather convincing defeat of Doug Forrester — just one year after a sitting Democratic governor resigned the governorship.
Republicans, in fact, have won only two statewide races since Republican Gov. Tom Kean’s two terms in office ended in 1989 — and those races, won by Christie Whitman, were won by slim margins following a massive tax revolt that shifted control of the state Legislature to the GOP. That shift lasted just eight years.
Hank Kalet 
From Blue Jersey:\”In September 2006, in the midst of a hard-fought US Senate campaign being dominated by accusations of corruption, Chris Christie authorizes a last minute subpoena that plays into Tom Kean Jr.\’s political attacks against Bob Menendez.\”Christie is one of those partisan hack GOP US attorneys who go after Democrats in close elections. Whatever happened to his supposed case against Menendez? Oh yeah, it just evaporated after the election was over because it was a phoney baloney set up job.
Well maybe Bret was a conservative when he won the primary, but in the general all he could talk about was Cowpox and other nonsense.But you forget all the other wimp liberals like Franks, Foresster, Kean and Zimmer who got creamed.Lonegan\’s not like any of these guys. He\’s a man with a pair on him. He plays to win. He\’s not a wimp like these other guys. He\’s going to kick Corzine\’s butt.And by the time Steve\’s done with Corzine, he\’ll have spent so much money that Jonny will have to live in one of those COAH houses.Christey should go back and take that big paying law job he\’s being offered. Winning elections is a man\’s job and Christey clearly isn\’t up to it.