The Chris Christie scandals that make him the least popular 2024 candidate with Republican voters

When New Jersey citizens elected Chris Christie as their governor in 2010, they joined his bull-in-a-china-shop approach.

But by the time he left office in 2018, his ratings had plummeted, he was embroiled in scandal after scandal and seen more as a bully than a political bull.

As he announces another presidential candidate on Tuesday and enters a crowded field dominated by Donald Trump, his record gives opponents ammunition for attack, much as he did during his ill-fated 2016 campaign.

A Monmouth University poll last week showed the challenge he faces. The survey of 655 Republican voters found that he was viewed favorably by only 21 percent and unfavorably by 47 percent.

He was the only one of the 10 candidates to receive a net negative score from the people he needs to win the nomination.

Bridge gate

Once considered a front-runner for the 2016 nomination, Christie was a hard-working former prosecutor who had managed to win over a mostly Democratic state.

But his campaign unraveled amid allegations that his aides closed lanes on a bridge into New York City to get revenge on a local mayor.

The scandal erupted just after Christie won re-election as governor. And it involved creating traffic jams on access roads to the George Washington Bridge to punish the mayor of Fort Lee for not supporting his re-election campaign.

Two of Christie’s aides were sentenced to 13 months and 18 months in prison before their convictions for fraud were overturned by the Supreme Court.

Yet the 2020 ruling barely amounted to a finding of evidence. In its verdict, the court said the evidence “undoubtedly shows misconduct — deceit, corruption, abuse of power,” even if the aides did not benefit from their actions.

Among the evidence was a scathing e-mail Assistant Bridget Anne Kelly sent to an official from the New York and New Jersey Port Authority, who manages the bridge.

“Time for some traffic jams in Fort Lee,” she wrote.

Christie always denied any knowledge of their scheme and was not prosecuted. Yet it was still seen as the death knell for his political career and his presidential hopes in 2016.

Matt Katz, author of “American Governor: Chris Christie’s Bridge to Redemption,” said the scandal, featuring misaligned traffic cones, may seem a little strange in retrospect. But at the time, it undermined the governor’s reputation as a prosecutor who cracks down on corruption.

“It hit the core of who Christies said he was and that damaged his reputation because it damaged his authenticity,” he said.

The absent governor

If Bridgegate made national headlines, New Jersey voters had other reasons to grumble. Who ran the state when Christie ran for the White House?

In 2015, the governor of New Jersey spent 261 days or parts outside his state.

It wasn’t hard to figure out what he was doing. His days of absence include 56 days in New Hampshire, the early primary state Christie put his campaign on.

The result was grumbling at home that the governor had given up his day job.

And it coincided with polls showing that a majority of New Jersey residents thought the state was on the wrong track.

In March 2016, criticism grew when he missed a state trooper’s funeral to campaign in South Carolina. Trooper Sean Cullen died after being hit by a driver as he responded to a car fire.

The result was a series of editorials in local newspapers demanding that he step down to pursue his national ambitions.

‘Govern. Chris Christie has made it abundantly clear that governing New Jersey is a distant second priority to him, far behind the demands of his personal ambition.

“He has met every crisis with neglect during his disastrous second term.”

The editorial read: ‘Chris Christie, resign for the sake of NJ’

Trump’s support

That Star-Ledger editorial cited one other factor as the last straw: his “cowardly” endorsement of Donald Trump when Christie bowed to the inevitable and left the race.

“He’s rewriting the playbook of American politics,” said the then-governor of New Jersey. “The best person to beat Hillary Clinton in November is undoubtedly Donald Trump.”

He became an outspoken campaign driver for the man who would become the 45th president, much to the shock of many New Jersey voters who had viewed Christie as the acceptable face of 21st-century Republicans.

Fast-forward seven years and Christie has flipped again, positioning herself as the most anti-Trump of the candidates running against the former president.

Having already alienated moderate Republicans by endorsing Trump once, he is now losing the Trump base by running against their hero.

Or as his biographer Katz puts it, he jumped from cart to cart and sold his principles at least once.

Beach gate

If there’s one image that will forever be associated with Christie, it’s the sight of the New Jersey Governor with his hands folded over his stomach as he lays on the beach. He is surrounded by his sunbathing family.

But at the time, in 2017, Island Beach State Park was closed to the public due to the state government shutdown.

The Christie family find themselves on a deserted beach on the Jersey Shore, while everyone else spent the July 4 holiday without access to state parks.

The photo was taken by an enterprising photographer while NJ Advance was driving a Cessna, after Christie announced he would be spending the day at the beach.

“I don’t know if it’s fair, but…my family isn’t asking for services while we’re there,” Christie said.

The result was outrage at the governor being given special treatment and a series of shrugs from the man at the center of the scandal.

“A week ago today I told people we had plans to be here, and whether it stopped or not, we would be here because it is our residence,” he told Fox 29. “They even caught a politician being To keep your word.’