Before a single ballot was returned in the Iowa caucuses, Governor Christie was back in New Hampshire for a final push for support in next week’s primary vote. Not so for John Kasich, who also left Friday, and won’t return for last-minute campaigning Monday, because he’ll be holding a town hall then in Loudon, New Hampshire. Before he was governor, Christie built his reputation as a media-savvy prosecutor who took on the state’s notorious public corruption and won, scoring 130 convictions or guilty pleas on his watch. “I’ll tell you what, I bet you won’t be able to, and if you can’t, I would suggest to you, with all due respect, you’ve got no business caucusing for that person”, Christie said.
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He was widely praised for his performance, despite skepticism: Critics charged President George W. Bush only appointed the lawyer and registered lobbyist to the post of U.S. Attorney in New Jersey because of the money he raised for Bush’s 2000 campaign.
Over more than a year, Christie’s spent far more time in New Hampshire and Iowa than he has in the state he runs, and he’s gotten a lot of criticism for it.
Kasich kicks off Saturday with a town hall event in Merrimack, followed by two more in Keene and Peterborough. That doesn’t mean it’s the same crowd, though.
While his GOP rivals are in Iowa for the presidential caucuses, Kasich continues to focus on next week’s primary in New Hampshire.
Chris Christie isn’t counting on an Iowa miracle to lift him past Donald Trump and others at the top of the Republican field when the nation’s presidential nominating process begins tonight.
Christie’s chief strategist, Mike DuHaime, acknowledged after Thursday’s debate that Bush was enjoying “a little bit of a resurgence” in New Hampshire, “but again, it’s only because everybody’s beating up Christie, and now they’re going to beat up Rubio, and now they’re going to beat up Kasich”. A good portion of Christie’s town halls are now spent attacking Rubio as unqualified, a point he drove home more pointedly in the interview. Yet Hale said it’s unlikely any poor result in Iowa would force Christie to suspend his campaign. “He has no experience in running anything”. “I want you to pretend that that mother and father are standing on either side of you when you’re getting ready to mark your ballot”.
“I think it’s pretty safe to say I won’t”, Mr. Christie said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”. In fact, Rubio doesn’t even factor in to what Christie views as success in the first two contests of the race.
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“My view has been, don’t make a decision until you absolutely have to”, Christie said.
