It's Final, Christie Won't Seek GOP Nomination

Saying that "now is not my time," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced Tuesday that he will not seek the Republican nomination for president in 2012.

Standing behind a lectern in the Statehouse in Trenton, Christie said he believed he owed it to the people of New Jersey to continue as governor. "It's never felt right... to me in my gut to leave here when the job is not finished," he said. "New Jersey, whether you like it or not, you're stuck with me."

But Christie did not rule out a run for the presidency in the future, telling an NBC News reporter that "I'm not going to preclude any job whether president or working at NBC."

At Restaurant on Main St. in Fort Lee reaction to the governor’s announcement was mixed, but most people didn’t seem entirely surprised, and many said they thought he’d make a good presidential candidate some day.

“I had a feeling that he was probably not going to run,” said Rotary Club of Fort Lee president Gary Presslaff after the group’s weekly lunch meeting at the restaurant. “He’s plenty entrenched here in New Jersey. I think probably by the next election he might be ready, but he probably wasn’t prepared for the onslaught and the process right now. I think it’s good that he held off for now. I think it’ll give him more time. It’s kind of hard to drop that on your wife and kids that you’re all of a sudden running for president. It’s quite an upheaval so it’s probably better that he waits until 2016.”

Rotarian Matthew Libien said he hopes Christie can now focus on stimulating the state’s economy and “getting people working again” now that he’s staying on as governor. But Libien too said he wouldn’t be surprised to see Christie make a true run at the presidency in the future.

“I think for him he did the right thing because now he can formulate his ideas and his campaign so he can run in four years against an incoming Democrat instead of running against an incumbent,” Libien said. “I think that probably had a lot to do with his thinking. As far as us, I think it’s definitely a win.”

Michael Errichiello, however, disagreed, saying he thought Christie should have run.

“I think he’s doing a good job in New Jersey,” Errichiello said. “I think he would have made a good president—right now, better than we have.”

Robert Auriemma took the speculation a step further, saying that while he didn’t think Christie was ready for a presidential run and probably knew it, that doesn’t necessarily mean he wouldn’t consider a run for vice president if asked.

“I think he would have [made a good president], yes,” Auriemma said. “I think he definitely would have. I’m not necessarily disappointed. He’s young. He’s got plenty of time.”

Rotarian and Fort Lee resident Keith Jensen offered a slightly different perspective. Jensen, who’s running for State Assembly in November, said he thinks Christie would have made a good presidential candidate as well and may have stood a chance, but that the timing simply wasn’t right. He said Christie has done a “good job” as governor, but that, “We’ve got a lot more to work on.”

“Looking at it from my point of view, specifically running for the Legislature, I think it would have been very disruptive to the process of electing 80 brand new Assembly candidates and 40 new senators,” Jensen said. “It’s the only time that we can actually clean the entire Legislature and get fiscally responsible elected officials in there to clean government up. And if we don’t do it now, if we want to pass constitutional amendments, if we want to do anything, the only time to do that is now when you actually get the new people in the office.”

Jensen added, “If [Christie] was running, it would have taken too much attention off the local elections. With him in there and keeping it stable, now we can really focus on what needs to get done, which is fixing New Jersey’s economy; fixing the education system.”

Reached by phone shortly after Tuesday’s announcement, Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich said that “from a very selfish perspective,” he’s glad to know that Christie will now be devoting all of his time “to his desk in Trenton, as opposed to having to deal with national politics.”

“I completely respect his decision because he’s very well aware of the fact that these types of opportunities happen usually once in a lifetime, if they ever happen at all,” Sokolich said. “So I’m sure he labored over it, but I’m glad to know that he’s going to be in New Jersey full-time.”

Sokolich also said that going forward he wants to see the governor focus more on two things: collective bargaining and pension reform. The latter, he said, “costs our borough millions and millions of dollars each year.”

“Unfortunately, with some of the mentalities of unions that we deal with, their contract demands have an inverse relationship to the condition of the economy,” Sokolich said of collective bargaining. “And what I mean by that is that if the economy gets worse, you would think that their demands of government would be less. To the contrary, their demands of government are even worse.”

The governor had repeatedly said he would not join the GOP campaign, but reports continued to surface in recent weeks that he was re-considering, under pressure from numerous Republican leaders unhappy with the current list of candidates.

Christie said his wife and four children had been supportive in a possible campaign. "Mary Pat woke me up a few days ago at 6 o'clock in the morning and told me, 'If you want to go for it, go for it,'" he said.

He said other candidates did not make a presidential run sound appealing, saying that those who had lost described the experience as "a nightmare," while those who won agreed that it was "awful."

The governor didn't resist an opportunity to take a swipe at President Obama, saying the president had "failed the leadership test." But he said it was too early for him to make any endorsement of any of the current GOP contenders.
Christie said he had been amused by the attention he had received, including from comedians who made jokes about his weight. "It's fair game, they can make fun of it," Christie said, "provided it's funny." He said his son Andrew had even taken to showing him video clips of items he'd missed. "So he's been grounded," Christie quipped.

The governor indicated he would not be interested in the GOP nomination for vice president, saying he did not see himself as a "Number Two kind of guy."
The pressure has intensified in recent days for the governor to make a decision after both Florida and South Carolina moved up the dates for their party primary to January, leaving only three months of campaigning before the actual selection of delegates begins.

Christie's announcement comes the same day as a new poll shows him in fourth place nationally in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination, behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, business executive Herman Cain and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

New Jersey Democrats were quick to respond to the governor's announcement. "The governor clearly understood that he cannot run for president when his own house isn't in order," Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex) said. "Unemployment is at 9.4%—higher than the national average. Property taxes have increased since he took office. He has a budget deficit of almost $8 billion... Not the best record on which to base a presidential campaign."

Added New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford), “Thankfully, we can now move ahead and focus on the real issues that are impacting the people of this state. Unemployment here is above the national average, while more people, particularly children, are living in poverty."

Local Republican leaders made it clear that they were hoping for a different decision. “I am disappointed but I respect Governor Christie’s decision to decline to seek the presidency at this time," U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (11th District-N.J.) said. "Anyone who has ever worked with the governor understands his strong leadership for New Jersey would have been good for America."

Erik Wander contributed to this article.