When Gov.-elect Christopher J. Christie promised to bring change to Trenton, he usually was talking about cutting taxes and spending.

It will be two months before he can formally start that task, but it's already clear that Christie will bring a starkly different personal style to New Jersey's top political office.

In public appearances since Election Day, Christie has been blunt, funny, pugnacious, decisive, and, above all, forceful. He has been comfortable joking with teens and mingling with politicians, in control when dealing with the press, and defiant toward opponents and detractors.

Christie's words seem to barrel downhill toward his audience. His answers, often short on detail, are long on punch.

Take, for example, his comments a day after his victory, when he toured a Newark charter school and talked up his plans for education.

"If anybody thinks I'm kidding about this, they're going to watch. I am not going to continue to allow urban children to be failed and cheated by failing public schools," Christie told reporters.

When he said the "forces" against reform were powerful, he was asked to clarify: Did he mean the teachers union, which had blitzed the state with anti-Christie mailers after he declined even to seek its endorsement?

"That's exactly who I'm talking about," he said.

Christie's public persona is a sharp contrast to that of Gov. Corzine, who often has been fumbling in the spotlight and meandering in his speech, leaving the public and lawmakers to parse his words for possible meanings.

The two are scheduled to share a podium Thursday for the first time since Election Day, when each will speak at the New Jersey State League of Municipalities convention in Atlantic City.

Christie "is very straightforward, very direct, very blunt, and very New Jersey," said State Sen. Bill Baroni (R., Mercer), a close ally. "That bluntness and directness is exactly what we need right now."

Baroni added that "there will be no need to read the tea leaves to figure out what Chris Christie thinks."

The professorial Corzine struggled to distill his message and deep policy knowledge into snappy sound bites. He shut down state government in a budget fight early in his term, but after that mostly opted for compromise over confrontation. And he revealed little of his personal side or self-deprecating sense of humor in public.

Gov. Rendell said his Garden State counterpart was inherently shy and didn't have the same "zest" for wading into crowds as other politicians. He recalled having to urge Corzine early in his career to banter with people on the Ocean City boardwalk.

"That not only hurts you as a campaigner, it hurts you a little in the governing process. You don't build up a 'credible' bank or a 'likable' bank with your constituents," Rendell said.

When you have 30 seconds in a news report to promote your ideas, "you really have to crystallize them," he said.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who has ties to both Corzine and Christie, said politics required both the "prose" of "churning out real substantive results" and the "poetry" of reaching the public.

"You have to find a way to boldly and authentically be yourself," Booker said.

Christie has not been shy about himself. His love of the New York Mets and New Jersey superstar Bruce Springsteen is renowned. He has joked about his family and their reactions to his win, telling high schoolers that his son now wants to be dropped off behind school so as not to be embarrassed by his father's security entourage.

Christie, a former securities lawyer who sometimes argued before appeals panels, had to be prepared, organized, and articulate, said Bill Palatucci, a friend, political ally, and former law partner.