Christie expected to announce presidential run next week

TRENTON - Gov. Christie seemed to play coy Thursday night on his presidential plans even as people with knowledge of his intentions said he would announce a campaign next week.

The Republican governor will make the announcement Tuesday at Livingston High School, in the North Jersey town where he grew up, two sources confirmed to The Inquirer. The planned announcement was first reported Thursday by WNYC.

On his monthly radio show Thursday night, Christie said he had not decided whether to run.

"There's been absolutely no final decision made by me," Christie said on NJ 101.5's Ask the Governor program.

Asked whether he was denying reports of the Tuesday announcement in Livingston, Christie said: "I can't deny that, because I haven't made a decision."

Christie, who has repeatedly said he would decide this month on a 2016 run, said Thursday he needed to finish his work on the state budget before making a decision.

Lawmakers passed a budget Thursday for the fiscal year beginning July 1 that includes tax increases Christie is expected to line-item veto. He will take action on the budget Friday morning at the Statehouse.

The expected announcement would cap years of speculation about Christie's ambitions of higher office. A former U.S. attorney for New Jersey known for his blunt, combative style, Christie rose to Republican Party prominence nationally not long after becoming governor in 2010, with a firm term marked by deals with Democratic lawmakers on an agenda that included a pension overhaul and a property-tax cap.

His profile also rose after Hurricane Sandy, helping pave the way to his 2013 reelection with 61 percent of the vote.

But his popularity has suffered since the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal and amid bad fiscal and economic news in New Jersey, from lagging economic recovery to a series of downgrades by credit-rating agencies, to revenue troubles that led Christie to cut payments he had promised into the pension system.

At home, his approval rating has slipped, falling as low as 30 percent in a poll released earlier this week.

Nationally, Christie will face the challenge of separating himself from a crowded pack of more than a dozen contenders vying for the Republican nomination.

He has tried to boost his prospects in recent months through out-of-state town-hall-style meetings and policy speeches.

He has focused his travels on New Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state seen as key to his 2016 chances - and where he will head after the New Jersey announcement Tuesday for a town-hall meeting that evening, according to reports Thursday, including by New Hampshire's WMUR.

A spokeswoman for Christie's political action committee did not respond to requests for comment on the New Hampshire reports.

A CNN/WMUR poll released Thursday found Christie at 5 percent among likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters, tied for sixth with retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush led at 16 percent, followed by real estate mogul/reality-TV star Donald Trump at 11 percent.

By choosing his former high school as the backdrop of his announcement, Christie is trying to portray himself as "the sincere guy who hasn't forgotten his roots," said Patrick Murray, a political analyst at Monmouth University.

"I connect better with the average Joe" is "exactly the message he wants to send to New Hampshire," where primary voters expect one-on-one interaction with candidates, Murray said.

Born in Newark, Christie moved with his family to the suburb of Livingston when he was still young. Interested in politics early on, he volunteered for Tom Kean's 1977 gubernatorial campaign after the Republican visited Christie's junior high school.

At Livingston High School, Christie was class president and a varsity baseball catcher. His yearbook quote read: "Great Hopes make Great Men."

Christie went on to the University of Delaware - where he met future wife, Mary Pat Foster, a Paoli native - and Seton Hall Law School, joining a law firm after his graduation.

After a failed attempt to run for state Senate in 1993 - a procedural error kept off the ballot - Christie won a heated 1994 campaign to become a Morris County freeholder.

He quickly angled for a higher office - the state Assembly - but lost. He then lost reelection as a freeholder in 1997.

But he was not done with politics. Christie got involved in George W. Bush's 2000 campaign, joining his then-law partner Bill Palatucci, now one of Christie's closest advisers.

In 2001, Bush picked Christie as U.S. attorney for New Jersey, a job he has made a cornerstone of his national pitch.

Christie - who had no criminal law experience - has pointed to his role as a federal prosecutor after the Sept. 11 attacks to argue in favor of U.S. intelligence efforts, painting himself as the only 2016 contender to have used the Patriot Act.

At the time, Christie drew attention for prosecuting corruption among the ranks of Jersey's politicians, including some Republicans.

He resigned not long after President Obama's 2008 election. By early 2009, he had announced plans to challenge Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, a bid he won later that year.

After a first term that featured bipartisan cooperation with the Legislature - including the pension-reform deal he would champion on the national stage - and saw his approval ratings soar after Sandy, Christie again won in 2013, beating Democrat Barbara Buono, who lacked party support.

But his story line of success was soon overshadowed by scandal, with the January 2014 revelations in that a top aide had sent an e-mail calling for "some traffic problems in Fort Lee" - weeks before September 2013 lane closures at the George Washington Bridge had caused massive traffic in the Bergen County borough.

Though Christie maintained he played no role in the plot, the scandal damaged his standing nationally and at home, where his approval ratings slid.