There was no question of whether Chris Christie would win New Jersey’s gubernatorial elections.
Sure enough, on Tuesday, he was re-elected with more than 60 percent of the vote and a significant win among women voters.
According to The New Yorker, “The New Jersey gubernatorial race is not just another lopsided off-year contest; Christie made it clear that he is thinking about the 2016 Presidential race, and that he thought this victory helped. His speech was full of political double entendres. ‘I did not seek a second term to do small things,’ he said.
“Not to say that New Jersey is small, but just how big is he thinking? ‘Maybe people in Washington should turn on their TVs now and see how it’s done,’ he said at another point, presenting Jersey as a magical land where things like partisanship and race could be put aside.”
He’s an effective yet controversial politician. For all his work with Hurricane Sandy relief efforts, he’s no magnanimous hero. He made headlines this week when a photo surfaced of him screaming and shaking his finger at a teacher who asked him why he continued to spread myths that teachers in New Jersey are failing.
It’s a fair question: New Jersey public schools are doing extremely well despite Christie’s claims that they are “failure factories.” Christie is on a mission to implement a corporate-influenced school reform agenda — but that’s an editorial for another day.
Christie, however, is poised to stake a claim in the Republican presidential candidacy for 2016. And Democrats should worry.
According to The Atlantic, “With a reelected Christie poised to become a major national figure, Tuesday’s result may be a warning as much to Democrats as it is to the GOP. Republicans will have a hard time succeeding if they follow Cuccinelli, Cruz, and the far-right fringe.
“But the toxicity of the Republican brand proved no obstacle at all to a candidate savvy enough to stake out a forceful and distinct persona and convince voters he can hurdle partisanship to get things done. Any Democrats who previously thought demographics, tactical superiority, and Republican disarray made their party a lock in 2016 ought to look at Chris Christie and think again.”
Voters have seen campaign failings from both parties in the past. Bush was re-elected in 2004 thanks to some Democratic missteps and a little campaign “strategery.” Obama was re-elected in 2012 thanks to some Republican missteps and campaign wizardry.
But 2016 could go either way. Remember how Christie’s endorsement of Obama (in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy) killed him in the polls and cost him the governorship?
Oh, wait.
If nothing else, this should at least be a call to the Democratic Party to rev up those campaign engines. Both sides will need all the horsepower they can get.
A version of this editorial ran on page 6 on 11/7/2013 under the headline "Game changer: Christie’s win and what it means for ’16"
