First of 2 candidate profiles

Even when Christopher J. Christie seems angry, there's that spark in his eyes, the slight turn of a lip, and the raised eyebrow that say he's still in control and enjoying the battle.

He'd better like it.

If the Republican candidate for governor wins Tuesday's primary, he'll likely go up against multimillionaire Democratic Gov. Corzine in the general election. The governor has shown no hesitation to fillet his opponents with expensive television campaigns.

Christie's comfort with the art of the argument was on display recently as he talked about his conduct as New Jersey's U.S. attorney and his brother Todd's troubles with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Standing in a Statehouse meeting room, Christie justified hiring the prosecutor who had previously overseen an investigation that included Todd Christie, a stock trader who was cleared of any wrongdoing.

And candidate Christie was making sure everyone in the press corps, as well as at least one Corzine operative in the audience, understood that his brother had been absolved.

Cradling his legal pad, signaling he was just about finished, Christie said, "I answer questions when they come up. I'm not going to say you'll always like my answers, but these are my answers and this is who I am."

Christie was raised for this kind of clash.

His mother, Sandy, was a warm Sicilian who never fulfilled her dream of going to college but used her strong mind to challenge her children intellectually.

"Oh, yeah, I like a good argument. I like a good fight," Christie said with a smile, and that spark in his eyes.

Fondly recalling his mother, who died in 2004, he said, "She was very opinionated. She loved to argue."

There was no holding back at the Christie home. "You had to learn how to argue or you got run over," he said.

The eldest of three, Christie was born 46 years ago in Newark and raised in Livingston, on a street so busy that he and brother Todd were relegated to the family's backyard for hours of Wiffle ball.

"It was fenced in, so a lot of home runs were available," he said with a chuckle. Later, he played catcher on his high school baseball team, and was captain when the team became state champs.

His father, William, worked at Newark's Breyer's ice cream plant and put himself through Rutgers University at night. He graduated as an accountant two months before Christie was born.

When he was 14, Christie saw Thomas H. Kean campaign for governor at his school, and he came home so inspired that he told his mother he wanted to work for Kean.

"My mother put me in the car and drove me up to Tom Kean's driveway," he said. After a pause, he said, "And made me go to the door by myself."

He volunteered for Kean's unsuccessful 1977 campaign distributing literature at events, beginning his political life. It was a life he'd contemplated even before that long walk to Kean's front door.

His grandmother, Anne Grasso, was a divorced mother of three who constantly talked about politics. Christie doesn't know whether she was a Democrat or a Republican, just that she was on fire about politics. She loved her Democratic congressman and voted for Republican Richard M. Nixon three times.