Jeb Bush is quietly waging a behind-the-scenes offensive to pick off disillusioned home-state supporters of Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor whose presidential prospects have dimmed in recent months.

Bush’s effort to undermine Christie’s network of donors, power-brokers, and political players is conducted mainly through emails and phone conversations — and he tracks the progress closely.


At a get-together with donors in Miami last weekend, Bush sat down for a private conversation with Lawrence Bathgate, a prominent New Jersey attorney and former Christie donor who is now behind the Florida Republican. During the talk, Bathgate, a former Republican National Committee finance chairman, outlined to Bush a plan to have a majority of the state’s 16 Republican state senators endorse him.

Bush responded with a question. How soon, he wanted to know, would the endorsements start to roll in? And could some of them be announced sooner rather than later?

The former Florida governor is said to court Christie boosters with frequent emails and makes himself accessible to them. “He’s a great emailer,” said Hersh Kozlov, a major Republican Party fundraiser in New Jersey and former Christie supporter who’s now with the former Florida governor.

The attempts to crack the Christie network — both are in competition for the same group of moderate and establishment Republicans — dates back at least to January, not long after Bush launched his presidential exploratory committee. At the time, Bush met with around a dozen New Jersey Republicans for dinner at New York City’s Union Club. He started out the meeting in a surprising way, telling those gathered that they should feel free to ask him anything — no holds barred. One person took him up on the challenge, posing a question to him about his daughter’s struggle with drug addiction.

For months, Bush and his finance chief, Heather Larrison, have been reaching out to New Jersey donors. Once a financial commitment is secured, they typically ask that person for names of friends or associates in the state who might also want to give.

As Christie’s fortunes have seemed to fade amid his sagging polling numbers, fiscal problems at home and fallout from the Bridgegate scandal — on Friday a former political ally of the governor pleaded guilty and two other former officials were indicted for their alleged roles in the affair — Bush’s efforts have ramped up.

Last month, Bush landed his biggest catch yet: Joe Kyrillos, a longtime state senator who chaired Christie’s 2009 campaign. When Kyrillos, a former New Jersey Republican Party chairman, appeared at a Bush donor event in Miami last week, he was greeted with a hero’s welcome. At a private dinner, which was attended by around 350 of the former governor’s biggest benefactors, the senator was rewarded with a round of applause and a seat at Bush’s table.

Among the other recent public converts to Bush: Brian Nelson, an up-and-coming, 37-year-old lobbyist who less than six years ago helped lead Christie’s gubernatorial transition team and John Crowley, a biotech executive whose compelling life story was the subject of a 2010 Harrison Ford movie. Crowley had contributed over $7,000 to Christie’s campaigns.

“I think there is a very broad effort to win over the traditional fundraising community, especially the people who supported Chris Christie,” said Crowley, who plans to cut Bush a check. “Here in New Jersey, I think there is very broad support for Governor Bush.”

So far, Bush has yet to hold a fundraiser in New Jersey or to campaign there — a decision, those close to him say, reflecting a belief that doing so would be seen as an intentional provocation to Christie, whose team keeps an iron-fisted grip over the party apparatus in the state. Most often, Bush has chosen to hold his face-to-face meetings with the state’s Republicans across the border in New York City. But that calculus is now changing. In recent days, Bush’s camp has been in talks with its supporters in the state about holding an early summer fundraiser there.

Publicly, the Bush team is saying little. Tim Miller, a spokesman, declined to comment on the push other than to say: “We’re happy to earn the support of any like-minded individuals across the country that want to support Gov. Bush.”

Christie’s team insists Bush’s effort will have little overall impact, arguing that the Florida Republican’s support in the state represents just a small fraction of the party. Christie continues to maintain the public backing of the state’s 21 influential GOP county chairmen and a number of other key players, including Dale Florio, a Trenton lobbyist, Jon Bramnick, the GOP leader in the state Assembly, and George Gilmore, an attorney and the Ocean County Republican Party chairman.

“I am not concerned about it. Ninety-nine percent of the state GOP political establishment will be with Christie if he runs,” said Mike DuHaime, a Christie adviser. “The few defectors will have their own personal reasons for doing so, but it will be of no concern in the long run.”

One reason for that high level of confidence is the reluctance of GOP officeholders to buck the incumbent governor — constitutionally one of the most powerful governorships in the nation. Regardless of Christie’s standing in the presidential race at the moment, his term in office doesn’t expire until January 2018 — and he has a reputation for playing hard-ball politics, especially against those he deems disloyal. Many of those contacted for this story declined to speak for the record out of fear, they say, of inflaming Christie.

Among many ex-Christie backers, an often-stated reason for defecting is a longstanding relationship with the Bush family. Kyrillos first met Bush in 1986, back when Bush was serving as chairman of the Miami Dade Republican Party. Clifford Sobel, a prominent GOP fundraiser, served in the George W. Bush administration as ambassador to Brazil. Kozlov said he’d forged a relationship with Jeb Bush ahead of the 2000 presidential campaign. In 1998, Bush flew up to Cherry Hill, N.J. for a fundraiser he was hosting.

“I’ve known Jeb for a long, long time,” he said. “For me, it was a very easy choice.”

For others, the issue is Christie’s hard-charging personal style. Gail Gordon, an influential Republican lobbyist in the state who is with Bush, found herself at odds with Christie after he targeted her husband, a Democrat in the state Senate, for defeat. Bathgate, who raised money for George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, clashed with the governor over his plan to construct sand dunes across the state’s coastline.

Christie, for his part, has remained stoic.

During an appearance on a local radio station this week, Christie was asked about the Kyrillos defection.

“This is politics,” he shrugged. “It’s not personal.”

“It doesn’t change my view of him,” he added. “I love him.”