Chris Christie Picks Up Endorsements, Promises to Play Hard

While Christie has focused much of his campaign for the Republican nomination on New Hampshire, he said that he plans to spend more time in Iowa over the next four months.

Christie announced the endorsements with Rastetter and three of the other backers at his side during an event Tuesday morning inside the State Historical Museum in Des Moines. So at a time when New Jersey already can’t pay its bills, it is completely irresponsible for the Governor and others to suggest cutting state revenues is an acceptable compromise to increase the gas tax dedicated to the Transportation Trust Fund.

Earlier this year, Christie was one of almost a dozen GOP presidential hopefuls to participate in a forum Rastetter hosted on agricultural issues.

“I had a reporter ask, ‘Does this mean I’m part of the Branstad wing of the Iowa Republican Party?’ And I said, ‘Well, if by that you mean the winning part, yes, I am, ” Christie said.

A deal involving such a tradeoff, the head of the think tank said, would be uneven, since the two so-called “death taxes” generate a combined $755 million annually, far below the almost $2 billion needed to sustain the Transportation Trust Fund. Cutting the estate and inheritance taxes would also take revenue away from the state budget at a time when commitments to higher education, public-employee pensions and other priorities are being shorted, he said.

Chris Christie at Branstad’s birthday party in October. 2014.

“We heard from a variety of (candidates)”, said agricultural businessman Bruce Rastetter, who was careful not to criticize any of the other contenders.

“Even though he’s not the leader, we feel like he should be the leader”, Elwell said, according to AP. “We are going to reinvigorate the debate going on in Iowa, right now”.

David Oman, a former chief of staff to Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad who is tied to Jeb Bush’s campaign, said the endorsement “will be marginally helpful”.

“He is putting together a strong grassroots organization and effort, many people who I know that are very well respected and also are hard workers in terms of grassroots organization”, Branstad said Tuesday.

The group of six includes Rastetter as well as Denny Elwell, Gary Kirke, Dr. Mike Richards, Mikel Derby, and Jim Kersten.

But on Tuesday, Christie received a shot of momentum.

“It’s an affirmation of our candidacy for all those people who were doubters both here in Iowa and around the country”, he said in a telephone interview Monday evening. They’re two different words. He pointed to Iowa’s primary election process, which chooses its candidate in a caucus.

As a middle-class resident of New Jersey I would have much preferred to have seen a headline that stated “Christie has a plan to reduce sales taxes on Chevys and Fords”. “We’ve got to go through the entire regular season and playoffs”.