The Governor was raising money for U.S. Senator Scott Brown in Massachusetts last night, Save Jerseyans.
No, he wasn’t barnstorming through the Bay State for his 2012 presidential endorsee, Mitt Romney, who is expected to triumph there today by at least a double-digit margin.
In fact, Chris Christie will be “home” throughout this unusually competitive “Super Tuesday” focusing on state-based issues. He’ll visit the Ocean Township Community Gym around 3:00 p.m. today with Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno to rally support for his controversial FY 2013 budget proposal and accompanying 10% across-the-board income tax cut.
But don’t let Governor Christie’s relatively quiet Super Tuesday schedule mislead you, Save Jerseyans. He may still yet play a very important role in the GOP nomination process.
And I’m not talking about a “brokered” convention.
Even if Governor Romney wins EVERY delegate up for grabs today (an impossible feat since none of this year’s Super Tuesday contests are “winner takes all”), he would have amassed only 586 delegates or roughly half of what he ultimately needs to clinch the Republican nomination (1,144 delegates). Thereafter, most of the contests between Super Tuesday and June 5th are not winner takes all.
Santorum, Paul and Gingrich could prolong the fight by poaching just enough delegates in proportional states to deny Mitt a pre-Tampa resolution, so it’s entirely possible that winner takes all New Jersey (50) and delegate-rich hybrid “winner take all” California (172) could jointly serve as Mitt Romney’s do-or-die, 222-delegate firewall if today goes badly.
How reliable is the firewall? As of now, Romney leads in the latest California and New Jersey public polling.
What tomorrow morning will bring is anyone’s guess. Governor Romney is naturally hoping he doesn’t “need” NJ and Cali. We may get a better idea if he will in just a few hours when exit data begins trickling in and polling stations start to close. If he does, Governor Christie will have an exceptionally busy May and June rallying Garden State support for his chosen candidate.
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