Chris Christie (R)

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.

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