People in the news

Chris Christie (R)

New Jersey Governor

(Stephen Chernin/
Getty Images)

Why He Matters

Christie's election to the New Jersey governorship on November 4, 2009, was a case, at least in part, of right place, right time. But by the close of his first year in office, he had rapidly risen to become a Republican powerhouse and a potential candidate for higher office. Despite a plethora of high-profile wannabes, Christie is often mentioned as a possible 2012 candidate, though he bluntly rejected the idea in early 2011.

A lawyer and former lobbyist (as well as a top fundraiser for President George W. Bush), Christie was appointed as a United States attorney in 2001. He was initially criticized as inexperienced, but after he won a string of high-profile political corruption cases, he developed a reputation as a champion of good government.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: U.S. Attorney, District of New Jersey (2002 to 2010); Lawyer, Dughi, Hewit & Palatucci (1987 to 2001); Elected official, Morris County, New Jersey Board of Chosen Freeholders (1994 to 1998)
Birthday: Sept. 6, 1962
Hometown: Newark, N.J.
Alma Mater: University of Delaware, B.A., 1984; Seton Hall University School of Law, J.D., 1987
Spouse: Mary Pat Foster

Religion: Catholic
Office: 1719 Route 10 East, Suite 126, Parsippany, NJ 07054
Email
Web site

Path to Power

Christie is a born-and-bred New Jersey boy. He was born in Newark and grew up in Livingston, in northern Jersey. He left the state only for college. He worships Bruce Springsteen.

In Livingston, Christie grew up playing baseball (his position was catcher) and cowboys and Indians. (He always wanted to play the sheriff, his younger brother told The New York Times.) Christie's first foray into politics came when he was 14. Thomas Kean, who would later become the state's governor, came to speak at his high school, and Christie later convinced his mother to drive him to Kean's house, where he presented himself to the older man as a volunteer. Around the same time, Christie won his first elected office: class president. He participated in school government throughout his high school years.

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In 1980, Christie left New Jersey for his only stint outside the state, at the University of Delaware. He voted for the first time that year, for Ronald Reagan. Christie took up student politics at UD, as well, helping boost a fellow student to the presidency of the school's student government. By 1983, it was Christie who was campaigning for the top student office. He won, with his future wife, Mary Pat, on his ticket for the office of secretary. The next year, they were dating, and Mary Pat won the office her husband had just vacated. They married in 1986.

Law Practice

After college, Christie studied law at Seton Hall, where he maintained "varying degree of focus," he said in 2010. "My grades sometimes reflected this."

He did have a chance to work with a litigator, though, and through that job, he encountered John Dughi, who invited him to interview at his law firm. Christie left Seton Hall with a job in hand, and in 1987 joined Dughi's firm. At Dughi & Hewit, Christie rose quickly, specializing in securities and appellate law. Within six years -- at age 31 -- he made partner.

Even while pursuing his law career, Christie maintained his interest in politics, and by the time he was secure in his position, he was ready to take his first crack at running for an office outside of student government.

New Jersey Politics

Christie had stayed in touch with another Livingston native, Bob Grady, who had made his career in politics and worked for then-President George H.W. Bush. It was Grady who connected Christie with Bill Palatucci, a New Jersey politico and lobbyist.

One of Christie's first tasks in the world of Republican politics was working on position papers for Christie Todd Whitman's (R) 1990 Senate campaign. In 1992, he helped organize events for the first President Bush's unsuccessful reelection campaign, which Palatucci was overseeing in New Jersey. After the election, Christie recruited Palatucci to Dughi & Hewit, to start a lobbying practice.

In 1993, Christie wanted to challenge the state Senate majority leader in a primary, but didn't collect the necessary signatures. But in 1994, he won a seat on the Morris County Board of Freeholders, a county-level legislature.

Christie's pushy style got him into trouble, however: his two opponents sued him for defamation, arguing that he had lied about them. (He settled the case.) Christie campaigned on good-government measures, in particular, ending the practice of no-bid contracts, but won little success in passing those sorts of measures and later voted for a series of no-bid contracts himself.

This foray into local politics was short-lived, however. No sooner had he joined the Freeholder's Board, Christie decided to run for a seat in the state Assembly. He lost that race, and, challenged in a primary, failed to win reelection to his Freeholder's seat.

At that point, Christie was ready to abandon his push for political office. "When I lost in 1997, I thought to myself, Maybe I'm not suited for that," he told New York magazine in 2009.

2000 Election

Palatucci, however, was taking a longer, more national view of politics. In the late 1990s, he began ferrying New Jersey Republicans to Texas to meet George W. Bush.

"When I first met Bush in Austin, in January 1999, my impression was that this was somebody who was very comfortable in his own skin and he had a clear idea of who he was," Christie said later. "He's appealing to talk to, natural, relaxed, and he made me feel relaxed being with him."

Christie signed onto the Bush 2000 campaign as a fundraiser and as counsel for the New Jersey campaign. He raised enough to earn the nickname "Big Boy" from the president-to-be and "Pioneer" status, which meant he raised a minimum of $100,000 for the campaign.

After the younger Bush won, Paladucci forwarded Christie's resume to strategist Karl Rove. The White House chose Christie as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey. The choice attracted some criticism: Christie was the first candidate for the job who had never worked in the office, and he had no experience with criminal law.

U.S. Attorney

Once in the office, however, Christie proved a strong manager, meeting individually with attorneys when he arrived and forming more agile teams. He also met with team supervisors weekly.

His signature issue, however, was political corruption. Before Christie started as U.S. attorney, the FBI had begun dedicating more resources to investigating New Jersey's famously crooked political class, and Christie, too, increased the number of lawyers in his office working on these sorts of cases. Before long, Christie's office began convicting a slew of politicians on corruption charges. These investigations reached to some of the most powerful political figures in the state, including party bosses and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).

Before long, Christie's name was being batted about as a potential gubernatorial candidate. Christie denied the rumors: "''I love this job, and I don't have any political ambitions, I just don't,'' he said in 2003. ''I have been in politics before, it is a tough game. I have been a candidate, and I don't know that I am really anxious to do that again.''

But by 2008, President Bush's term was ending, which meant Christie would likely lose his job, and then-Gov. Jon Corzine (D) was politically vulnerable. Christie quit his job, and within a few months had announced his campaign to take over the New Jersey governor's office.

The Issues

As a Republican in an oft-blue state, Christie has focused on fiscal issues. He has skewered unions and pushed to cut state programs. But he also turned down an opportunity to campaign with Sarah Palin and has eschewed support from tea-party groups.

Christie has also made a point of using the full power of the office that he holds. He has vetoed the minutes of various state boards, thus overturning their decisions, and declined to reappoint a state Supreme Court justice, a power no other New Jersey governor has used.

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Within his first year in office, Christie was being mentioned as a possible future presidential or vice-presidential candidate, and some of his positions have been viewed through this lens. He says he is against abortion rights, for instance, and since his election, he has sounded more skeptical of the science of climate change.

GOP Hero

Regardless of the fact that denies interest in a 2012 presidential bid, Christie has raised his profile on the national stage and made his first major national speech in February 2011 to the American Enterprise Institute. He tied for third in the 2011 Conservative Political Action Committee straw poll, which measures enthusiasm among GOP activists, even though he didn't even attend.

The Budget

Christie campaigned in 2009 on the promise to corral New Jersey's unruly budget. Before he took office, critics complained that his plan was short on specifics, but in his first year as governor, he managed to push through close to $3 billion in cuts.

"New Jersey has been steaming toward financial disaster for years," Christie said in 2010.

He has been unwilling to compromise on budget issues, as well. When the legislature wanted to build a tax increase into a budget his first year in office, for instance, he simply refused.

He recalled in 2010: "I said, 'Listen, you can close down the government if you want, but if you do it, don't think I'm moving some cot into the governor's office. I'm going to get in those black suburbans, I'm going to go back to the governor's residence, I'm going to go upstairs, I'm going to order a pizza, I'm going to open a beer, and I'm going to watch the Mets." The legislature relented.

Education

The New Jersey teachers' union is one of Christie's favorite targets. He has pushed teachers to take on more of the costs of their own benefit packages, and cut the budgets of public schools. He has promised to decouple teacher salaries from seniority and connect them with classroom results.

During Christie's tenure as governor, New Jersey lost out on federal education grant money after his administration failed to include information about past budgets on its application.

Good Government

Christie made his reputation in New Jersey by crusading against political corruption. But at times he has had his own troubles with ethics issues. In 2008, no-bid contracts that he had awarded came under scrutiny by the Department of Justice.

While traveling on business as a U.S. attorney, he also treated himself to hotels whose price exceeded his allotted budget.

The Network

Christie met and volunteered for Thomas Kean (R), the former New Jersey governor and 9/11 Commission co-chair, as a high schooler. Bill Palatucci, who now serves on the Republican National Committee, was one of Christie's first political mentors. Palatucci introduced Christie to President George W. Bush, for whose 2000 campaign Christie raised funds.

In New Jersey, Christie has forged relationships with key political figures across the state, including Democratic Party bosses like George Norcross and Newark Mayor Cory Booker. On a national level, he campaigned in 2010 for a series of Republican candidates, from Meg Whitman in California to John Kasich in Ohio and Tom Corbett in Pennsylvania.

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