Chris Christie re-elected as New Jersey governor

http://www.cbsnews.com/

As CBS News estimates Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., will be re-elected as New Jersey governor by a comfortable margin, virtually no one ever thought the outcome might be different. For months, Christie held a commanding lead as his Democratic challenger, state Sen. Barbara Buono, failed to get her campaign off the ground.In the end, it was about securing a historically large landslide victory for a Republican governor in a blue state, and that he did. Christie capitalized on a seven-day, 90-stop bus tour that took him to every county in the state during the last week of his election. The real question coming out of Tuesday's election is what his margin of victory means for a potential 2016 presidential bid. This is a state that President Obama won by 17 points in the 2012 election and 15 points in 2008. Yet Christie, known for a more pragmatic brand of conservatism than many of the other potential 2016 candidates, easily bested Buono and was the first Republican to win the N.J. governor's office with more than 50 percent of the vote since 1969.The roots of Christie's victory lie in his aggressive response to Superstorm Sandy just before the 2012 election. After the storm, his approval rating jumped nearly 20 points to 67 percent among registered voters, 61 percent of whom cited his handling of the storm and its aftermath as the reason. Throughout the campaign, he didn't let voters forget that, making his hurricane response the subject of his first campaign ad in September. Early exit polls found voters gave Christie high marks for his handling of problems caused by Sandy. More than eight in 10 voters approve of his response to the storm. A quarter say they suffered severe hardship due to the storm, and those voters also approve of the way the Republican governor handled problems caused by the storm. Still, the economy was the issue most on the minds of voters today, far ahead of taxes, education, and same-sex marriage. Nearly six in 10 voters say the state's economy is in bad shape; while about 40 percent say it is good. While 29 percent of New Jersey voters think the condition of the state's economy has improved from four years ago, just as many say it has gotten worse. Four in 10 think it has stayed the same.The day before voters went to the polls, the Quinnipiac polling institute showed Christie with the same two-to-one margin lead over Buono that he has held for months. The poll put his lead at 61 to 33 percent among likely voters, including 64 to 29 percent lead among independents and 30 percent among Democrats. Because defeating Christie seemed like an insurmountable goal, outside Democratic and union-backed groups poured their money into the races for the state legislature in order to ensure that the Democratic body didn't see Christie gain any more supporters. According to the New York Times, as of last Thursday, more than $35 million in outside money had flowed into the state's races, more than twice what was spent when Christie was elected in 2009. They had reason to worry. Christie had vocal, heated battles with unions, especially the teachers' union, for power in the state, which has won him praise from conservatives. But other actions have been have been less cut-and-dry in their party leanings. He was criticized by some Republicans for appearing with President Obama in the wake of Sandy, and last month he decided to drop an appeal of the state Supreme Court's decision to allow same-sex marriages. He is distinctly different from Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia's attorney general who ran for governor in Virginia. Cuccinelli, a tea party favorite, hewed closely to conservative orthodoxy on both economics and social policy. Their styles are indicative of a larger divide about the future of the GOP, which is sure to drag out because of Christie's victory.