Chris Christie gets shoved out the door
In the race to succeed him, the New Jersey governor is the big loser.
By RYAN HUTCHINS 06/07/2017 05:28 AM EDT
It wasn’t all that long ago that Chris Christie was the darling of the Republican Party, his star burning so bright that a group of Iowa donors flew to New Jersey to convince the governor, hardly a year into office, that he needed to run for president. Six years later, his lieutenant governor will be running away from Christie as fast as she can.
New Jersey Republicans on Tuesday tapped Christie’s second-in-command, Kim Guadagno, as their choice to take the helm in January. She beat out a relatively unknown state lawmaker, who tried throughout their bitter primary battle to link her to the governor, and she will now take on former Goldman Sachs executive Phil Murphy in the general.
Christie’s toxicity in his home state, where his approval rating is near rock bottom, is likely to be Guadagno’s biggest liability as she moves into a general election this fall.
Christie’s been scarred by scandal and embarrassed on the campaign trail as a second-tier candidate who couldn’t make it past New Hampshire. He was fired from the presidential transition team and passed over for the job he wanted in the administration of President Donald Trump, a personal friend.
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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/07/chris-christie-new-jersey-239227
