CHRISTIE THE GOP FRONTRUNNER?

Two numbers that explain why Chris Christie is taking so much heat

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) has been getting an earful from Democrats lately.
New polling data released Thursday show why: Christie leads the prospective GOP presidential sweepstakes and stacks up best among his fellow Republicans against Democratic powerhouse and former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Ever since Christie cruised to reelection last month in his deep blue state like no Republican in decades, Democrats have sought to play catch-up. Their hope is to tar the governor’s image ahead of 2016 by casting him as a bully who isn’t bashful about punishing those who cross him. For his part, Christie wants to be seen
as something very different: A problem-solver who can work across party lines.
The result of Christie’s strategy: He’s wildly popular — and not just in New Jersey. Two numbers tell the story: 48 percent and 16 percent.
A new CNN/ORC International poll shows Christie is easily the most competitive Republican against Clinton, who has not announced whether she will make another White House bid but is seen as the likely Democratic nominee, should she run.
Christie (48 percent) runs about even with Clinton (46 percent) among registered voters, putting him a tier above other potential GOP White House contenders. He runs even with Clinton among self-described moderates and holds a big lead among independents.
By comparison, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) trails Clinton by eight points despite high name recognition following his 2012 run for vice president. Meanwhile, rising conservative stars like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) trail Clinton by 18 and 13 percentage points, respectively. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) lags behind the Democrat by 21.
When stacked up against potential GOP competitors in a Fox News poll, there is more good news for Christie. He leads eight other Republicans with a 16 percent plurality among GOP respondents. In other words, Christie’s not only shaping up as the most electable Republican right now; he’s also scoring points among the party faithful.
Christie has not yet said whether he will run for president in 2016. But he could hardly ask for a more ideal launching pad if he does. In addition to winning a second term in a very Democratic state, Christie recently ascended to the position of chairman of the Republicans Governors Association. The job will enable him to travel the country and build deep inroads with donors and party power brokers.
Cognizant of the threat Christie presents to Clinton or whomever wins the Democratic nomination, Democratic strategists have begun to take on Christie with an intensity that was mostly absent during the effort to unseat him in New Jersey this year.
The emerging campaign to define the governor was apparent in a recent episode involving the closure of access lanes from Fort Lee, N.J., onto the George Washington Bridge into New York. Democrats argued Christie’s allies were doling out punishment against the mayor of Fort Lee, who did not endorse Christie in his reelection bid. Christie denied deploying any such tactics.
It’s not just Democrats who are expected to lead the charge against Christie as 2016 draws near. Conservatives unhappy with Christie’s stance on immigration (he recently signed a bill to allow in-state college and university tuition for New Jersey high school graduates brought into the country illegally as children) and his warm embrace of President Obama after Superstorm Sandy, among other things, are expected to ramp up criticism, too.
All of which reinforces a reality of the GOP hierarchy right now: Christie is at the top of the heap, and opponents from both sides are going after him hard.
The big question for the next year is whether Christie’s image fades under political pressure at a level he’s never seen before in his career, or he keeps his footing in a fluid Republican pecking order. The answer to that question could determine who has the upper hand when the race for the GOP nomination begins more officially in 2015.

DIBLASIO & CHRISTIE WIN BIG

N.Y. TIMES

Bill de Blasio, who transformed himself from a little-known occupant of an obscure office into the fiery voice of New York’s disillusionment with a new gilded age, was elected the city’s 109th mayor on Tuesday. His overwhelming victory, stretching from the working-class precincts of central Brooklyn to the suburban streets of northern Queens, amounted to a forceful rejection of the hard-nosed, business-minded style of governance that reigned at City Hall for the past two decades and a sharp leftward turn for the nation’s largest metropolis.
      

Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat who is the city’s public advocate, defeated his Republican opponent, Joseph J. Lhota, a former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, by a wide margin. He won support from voters regardless of race, gender, age, education, religion or income, according to the exit poll.  Even traditionally conservative-leaning neighborhoods fell to Mr. de Blasio.

 

Throughout the race, Mr. de Blasio overshadowed his opponent by channeling New Yorkers’ rising frustrations with income inequality, aggressive policing tactics and lack of affordable housing, and by declaring that the ever-improving city need not leave so many behind.

To an unusual degree, he relied on his own biracial family to connect with an increasingly diverse electorate, electrifying voters with a television commercial featuring his charismatic teenage son, Dante, who has a towering Afro.

In interviews on Election Day, voters across the five boroughs said that his message had captured their deep-seated grievances and yearning for change.

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N.Y TIMES

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey [cruised to victory]on Tuesday, a victory that vaulted him to the front rank of Republican presidential contenders and made him his party’s foremost proponent of pragmatism over ideology. In a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by over 700,000, Mr. Christie won decisively, making impressive inroads among younger voters, blacks, Hispanics and women — groups that Republicans nationally have struggled to attract.

The governor prevailed despite holding positions contrary to those of many New Jersey voters on several issues, including same-sex marriage, abortion rights and the minimum wage, and despite an economic recovery that has trailed the rest of the country.

But he attracted a broad coalition by campaigning as a straight-talking, even swaggering, leader who could reach across the aisle to solve problems, unlike the bickering politicians of Washington.

 

Republicans alarmed by the surging grass roots support for the Tea Party wing were cheered by Mr. Christie’s success, saying they hope their party will learn not only from the size of Mr. Christie’s margin over Barbara Buono, a Democratic state senator, but also from the makeup of his support. Mr. Christie’s strategy of bipartisanship and outreach deliberately echoed that of another Republican governor who seized the White House after eight years of Democratic control: George W. Bush.

 

His in-your-face style has won over New Jersey so far, but not everyone is at ease with it. Over the weekend, Mr. Christie was caught on camera wagging his finger at a teacher who challenged his cuts to classrooms, a moment reminiscent of the presidential campaign of 2012, when Mitt Romney’s advisers were alarmed by a video of Mr. Christie shaking an ice cream at a critic he encountered on the Jersey Shore.

 

Mr. Christie’s gains among black and Hispanic voters at the polls are the result of an aggressive, years-long effort: He has held more than 100 town hall-style meetings, including several in predominantly black areas that he lost in 2009.