Walker finishes with edge despite Christie’s alleged “sabotage”

Chris Christie campaigns with Scott Walker in 2012.

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

Christie WalkerWhen the media started playing up a reported “spat” between Chris Christie and Scott Walker last week, Save Jerseyans, my immediate reaction was as follows: I wish someone would “betray” me with two million dollars!

‘Cause that’s roughly how much Christie’s RGA was expected to spend over the final two weeks of Election 2014 in Wisconsin to defend Walker against a tough challenge from Democrat Mary Burke. Where did the betrayal story line come from?

Not a place of fact or logic.

Long story short, conflicting “sources” offered conflicting RGA WI spending targets to conservative media; when more reliable sources (?) subsequently reported a “smaller” RGA contribution to Walker’s reelection effort, media predisposed to distrust Christie (and love Walker) ran with the betrayal narrative.

To pad the story, an innocuous Walker quote was taken out of context: “[Christie] is coming because he asked if he could come and we weren’t going to say no. But we’re not looking for surrogates. The people that have been campaigning with me are by and large from Wisconsin.”

Walker wasn’t complaining about the $8 million spent on his behalf by the RGA (as of Halloween) this cycle or the $20 million he’s received over three gubernatorial campaigns. He was downplaying the “Walker is propped up by evil outsiders” attack line peddled by his opponents.

In total, Walker’s Wisconsin received better than 10% of the RGA’s total fundraising take this year.

Oh, the treachery!

While no Republican is ever safe in a Wisconsin statewide contest, he’s performing a lot stronger than his colleagues elsewhere; in fact, he’s only trailed in two public polls since mid-September, and by only 1-point each time, and in the six polls conducted since October 1st, he’s lead in 4 and was tied in one. His RCP net average lead is 2.2-points

So maybe it’s possible Christie saw more urgent needs for the cash in other close races? Although, again, he’s still dropping big money into the race down the stretch and made sure to put in a personal appearance where both men were all smiles.

But that narrative isn’t nearly as fun! Is it? Not when two potential 2016 rivals are brought into close contact and big money (and stakes) are on the table.

 

Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8405 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.

2 Comments

  1. .

    The bravest, toughest, most honest Governor from a Blue state, doing the best job in the Country…

    … and Chris Christie.

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