TRENTON — Marie Corfield didn't know what to expect when she confronted Gov. Chris Christie at a town hall in Raritan last year.

The 52-year-old art teacher left Robert Hunter Elementary during her lunch break and walked across the street to the municipal building, where Christie was holding court.

"I said ‘Well, now’s my chance. Better go speak my mind,’" Corfield said.

She did, and the ensuing 10-minute argument would soon become a YouTube sensation for Christie, helping him burnish his national image as a tough talking, no nonsense executive. But it also touched off a groundswell of publicity for Corfield, making her a sort of unofficial spokeswoman for aggrieved New Jersey public school teachers and, eventually, a candidate for Assembly.

The September 2010 confrontation reverberated across the internet after the governor’s staff posted it to his YouTube channel. Corfield took to the mic and ripped into the governor’s cuts to school funding and what she saw as his rhetoric against teachers.

"New Jersey has some of the best schools in the country, and this administration has done nothing but lambaste us and tell us what horrible schools we have," she said.

When Christie started to respond, Corfield threw her head back and rolled her eyes. Christie shot back "Let’s start with this: I sat here, stood here and very respectfully listened to you. If what you want to do is put on a show and giggle every time I talk, well then I have no interest in answering your question."

The video soon went viral, eventually getting more than 1 million views.

"I got some really nasty emails, phone calls and letters from people I didn’t even know," Corfield said. "It was people from California. People from all over the country."

Television appearances followed. Then came a phone call from Joey Novick, an attorney, comedian and political activist who thought she’d make a good candidate.

"I asked a good friend of mine who’s a teacher and she said, ‘Oh my god, Marie, you have to do this. Teachers need somebody to believe in. They need some hope," Corfield said last week walking door-to-door in a working-class Somerville neighborhood. "I said ‘You know what? I should do this, then. Because there’s nobody there at the table speaking for us.’"

A single mother of two children, ages 19 and 12, Corfield has never run for elected office. Now she’s running as a Democrat in the Republican-leaning 16th District along with South Brunswick Councilman Joe Camarota for Assembly and attorney Maureen Vella for Senate.

"You can say Chris Christie hand-picked (Corfield) to run," Vella joked.

The three are challenging state Sen. Christopher "Kip" Bateman (R-Somerset), Assemblyman Peter Biondi (R-Somerset) and Somerset County Freeholder Jack Ciattarelli, who is running for Assembly.

The Democrats are long shots, but Republicans aren’t as safe as they used to be after redistricting added some large Democratic towns to the district.

It’s tempting to see Corfield as the anti-Christie candidate. While national news outlets went into overdrive earlier this month over the possibility Christie would run for president, MSNBC featured Corfield on Rev. Al Sharpton’s show, which began with an image of Christie with the words "Jersey Boor."

"I don’t think too much of her performances, I really don’t. Probably part of the problems with the system and the NJEA," Bateman said. "I respect teachers. I think the problem is the union — and I think she’s more the rhetoric that’s coming out of the NJEA."

Christie’s office did not return calls for comment.

Corfield doesn’t want to be seen as a one-note candidate. While visiting voters door-to-door, the famous YouTube video only comes up about once a week. Instead, she tells them she wants to create jobs, increase funding for funding public schools and re-institute the tax surcharge on high income households known as the "millionaires tax."

"I’m not running against Christie. I’m running for great public education. I’m running for the middle-class," Corfield said. "I’m running for helping to create jobs. I’m running to work together with people down in Trenton."

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