WASHINGTON — It seems the 2016 presidential race is well under way as buzzed-about White House hopefuls hit convention stages, late-night TV shows and Twitter. All early indications show Hillary Clinton as the Democrat to beat, despite her Benghazi problem. But one Republican is becoming an early favorite by tossing out his party’s old, dusty playbook and playing by his own New Jersey rules.

While other Republicans such as U.S. Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida gave predictable conservative stump speeches at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington last week, Gov. Chris Christie was hanging out with Bill Clinton and slow-jamming the news with Jimmy Fallon. He may irk some conservative core members of his own party by giving President Obama props for his response to Superstorm Sandy and appearing at the Clinton Global Initiative conference in Chicago, but it’s the Democrats who really have something to pout about.

So says a Quinnipiac University poll taking the temperature in the swing state of Colorado, which gives Christie a 3-point edge over Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical matchup. The margin of error makes that potential matchup a dead heat, as is a potential race between Clinton and Rubio.

But as the GOP continues to struggle to find its groove after last year’s presidential loss, Christie is defining himself as the anti-Mitt Romney: a guy just like you and me, weight struggles, short temper and all. He also has an actual track record of being the kind of bipartisan Republican former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown claimed to be during his recent campaigns, but really wasn’t. Christie’s gravitas has earned him a hefty double-digit lead over his Democratic challenger in the upcoming governor’s race in the traditionally blue state.

And while Massachusetts won’t factor on the Electoral College tally on Election Night 2016, the Bay State can give a boost to Christie in other ways. A March fundraiser in Boston for Christie’s re-election campaign drew the state’s biggest, most deep-pocketed Republican names and helped tighten the bond between Christie and Brown. We certainly can expect to see these two together again if and when Brown makes a bid for the State House and if Christie makes his move for the White House, though certainly Brown needs Christie more than Christie needs him.

Some GOP pundits brush off the notion that Christie is their man, telling me that he is peaking too early and shooting himself in the foot with his photo ops with Clinton and Obama. But perhaps Christie is only starting to get into the swing of things, crafting a persona that will play well in the swing state margins where the next presidential election will be won and lost.