Gov. Chris Christie tried to tackle concerns that he’s more focused on his presidential aspirations than his day job, telling a New Jersey audience Wednesday that he can “walk and chew gum at the same time.”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do, and I have not made up my mind,” he said. “So I want you to know that every day I’m working as hard as I can to make sure we get the things done in the state that we get done. And I’m going to continue to do that.”
Christie made his remarks at a town hall in Moorestown, a format that he put on hold during the fall while he traveled and helped campaign for gubernatorial candidates as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. He resumed the town hall series Wednesday, holding his 128th since becoming governor.
The timing, however, had some wondering whether the governor was aiming to reconnect with Garden State voters. His approval rating dropped six points to 42% since December and his favorability rating dropped seven points to 37% in the same time period, according to a recent Rutgers-Eagleton poll.
When asked why Christie has seen a decline in his numbers, 10% of voters said it was because of his “presidential ambitions and lack of attention to current office,” while 4% said it was his “out-of-state travel.” Twenty percent said it was his overall attitude, behavior and personality, while 15% cited the George Washington Bridge scandal.
Indeed Christie has spent a lot of time on the road in recent months. He has traveled to Iowa three times this year and New Hampshire once, and he made a trip across the pond to London to help boost his foreign policy credentials. He travels to Washington this weekend as well as California, and makes a return trip to Iowa next week.
Christie and his allies also launched a political committee, Leadership Matters for America, which will help him continue to travel and seek support from donors.
The second-term governor tried to argue Wednesday that people knew when they re-elected him in 2013 that the White House was on his mind.
“When I ran for re-election, I got asked any number of times, ‘Will you rule out running for president in 2016?’ I said ‘No, I won’t rule it out.’ And 61% of you voted for me anyway,” he said. “What I took from that was that you were happy with the job I was doing and wanted me to continue to do the job I was doing and you knew that that might be a risk.”
If he runs for president, Christie vowed that “the people in this state will hear about it first,” and asked them to trust him as he continues to mull the decision.
“Just because I may have to consider what that next job is going to be doesn’t mean I’m not on the job, doing the job I need to do every day here,” he said.