By Melissa Hayes, The Record (Hackensack N.J.) –
WOODBRIDGE, N.J. — Governor Chris Christie stood alongside Mitt Romney before a $50,000-a-plate fundraising dinner on Tuesday and predicted that New Jersey is “going to be Mitt Romney country.”
The forecast might have been overly optimistic. Most opinion polls show President Barack Obama leading Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, among likely Garden State voters.
And yet Romney’s visit — it was his third appearance at a New Jersey fundraiser since December — reflects the state’s towering stature as a source of campaign cash for both parties, and Christie’s growing influence among Republicans nationally. He reportedly is on a short list of candidates that the Romney campaign is vetting as it narrows its search for a vice presidential nominee.
“They say that the best thing to be in politics is to be early and right, and New Jersey was early and right in picking Mitt Romney to be the Republican nominee,” Christie told about 200 Romney supporters who gathered at the Woodbridge Renaissance Hotel on Tuesday night. “And we weren’t just right for our party; we were right for America.”
Christie himself was among Romney’s earliest and staunchest supporters, traveling to New Hampshire in October to give his endorsement.
“There were many at that time who were still standing on the sidelines, sitting on the fence, waiting for something to hit them, yeah, and I did on behalf of Governor Romney, that’s right,” he said, drawing laughs.
Tickets to Tuesday night’s event started at $2,500. If attendees wanted a photograph with Romney, they had to pay $10,000. VIP tickets cost $25,000, and dinner tickets were $50,000.
Romney’s campaign would not say how much money the event raised, but that more than 200 people attended, paying various sums for tickets.
Romney came to Short Hills in April to raise money for the Republican National Committee, and he appeared with Christie at a fundraiser at the Parsippany Hilton in December.
The December event raised more than $1.6 million for Romney’s campaign, Todd Christie, the governor’s brother, said Tuesday.
Christie’s appearance Tuesday came at a time of intense speculation about Romney’s pick for vice president. In addition to Christie, Romney’s list reportedly includes Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota.
Romney offered no clues as to whom he might pick as a running mate, but he alluded to Christie’s reputation for tough talk.
“That man really is something, you know that?” Romney said.
“I was hoping someone would heckle him so I could watch him go to town here, but you know better, don’t you?”
He added: “What an extraordinary leader. You’re so lucky to have him guiding your state through tough times.”
While Christie has said repeatedly he plans to serve out his term, which ends in January 2014, he has also said that if Romney calls and makes him an offer, he will at least listen to the pitch.
Romney said Obama should have spent his time in office addressing the economy and immigration instead of pushing through his health-care law, whose fate now rests with the U.S. Supreme Court.
“If the Supreme Court lets it stand, why, it will make it very clear to the American people that they must elect someone who will stop it because it is bad policy, it’s bad medicine,” he said. “If they overturn it and they say it’s unconstitutional, as I believe it is, then the first three-and-a-half years of the Obama administration have been entirely wasted because that’s where he devoted his energy and passion.”
