Christie Appears Headed for Landslide Victory

Gov. Chris Christie appears headed for a double-digit gubernatorial victory -- adding momentum for a potential 2016 White House bid and proving he's able to "win convincingly and handily in a very blue state," an American Conservative Union member said Tuesday.

“It is vital for Gov. Christie to run up a big margin in order to make his story work,” Charlie Gerow, an ACU member and CEO of Pennsylvania-based Quantum Communications, told the Washington Times.

“Without a big margin, the story is far less powerful. But if he is successful, the story for Chris Christie is, ‘I am a Republican that not only can win in a very blue state, but I am able to win convincingly and handily in a very blue state.’ ”

The last GOP presidential candidate to win New Jersey was in 1988, when a majority of voters went for then-GOP presidential candidate George H. W. Bush.

None has won 50 percent of the vote in a statewide election -- not even Christie, who was elected governor in 2009 with 49 percent of the vote, the Washington Times noted.

Henry Barbour, on the Republican National Committee, said Christie's re-election "makes the point relevant to winning a national race."

“It does not take a lot of analysis to figure out a Republican winning there twice is connecting with voters we don’t normally convert in general elections," he said.

Christie is running well ahead of Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono in polls in advance of their Nov. 5 match-up.

The latest Real Clear Politics average of polls shows Christie up 30 points  -- winning strong support among male and female voters and garnering support of New Jersey’s independents, the Times said.

Christie boasted about the polls when he addressed the Republican National Committee in Boston this summer, telling the audience during a closed-door luncheon that if the party is serious about getting back to its winning ways and broadening its appeal then it should look at what he has done in the Garden State.

“For our ideas to matter, we have to win,” Christie said in a clip played on CNN. “Because if we don’t win, we don’t govern and if we don’t govern all we do is shout into the wind and so I am going to do anything I need to do to win.”