June 07, 2015
Speculation that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie plans to make a run at the Republican nomination for president in 2016 has followed every development and move he makes, but to date there has been no campaign announcement.
Speaking to John Dickerson on "Face the Nation," Christie said that he would make his choice this month on whether to join a crowded field of GOP hopefuls, CBS reports.
"I go through all the different factors that I need to consider. And when I'm done, I check that off and I move to the next factor," Christie told Dickerson. "And the factor I'm down to now, John, is do I want to do it? Do I want to do it? In my heart, is this something that I really, absolutely want to do?"
Christie, who was in New Hampshire for a roundtable discussion with residents about drug rehabilitation, addressed his intention to reverse course on the lenient federal response to marijuana legalization in states such as Colorado and California. He also expressed his disagreement with the Obama administration's recent passage of a reform bill curtailing the NSA's bulk collection of phone metadata, proposing that Congressional oversight is a better governmental check.
Other issues likely to affect Christie's national profile include his changing position on the Common Core Educational Standards, which he previously supported, and his economic record in the state of New Jersey, where he says that he inherited an "absolute fiscal basket case."
The most recent polling from May 19 to June 2 shows Christie behind GOP frontrunners Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee, and Ted Cruz. In New Jersey, amid a pension funding standoff and continued fallout from the 2013 bridge scandal, Christie's approval ratings recently dropped to their lowest point since he took office.
