Chris Christie intended to use this week to present himself as a serious figure ready to lead the country at home and abroad.

It didn’t quite work out that way.


The Republican governor started a trip to London by bobbling a question about whether measles vaccinations should be mandatory. The next day he snapped at a reporter who tried to ask him about foreign policy. He faced questions about a new federal investigation into his administration and came under scrutiny for his taste in luxurious travel. And back at home in New Jersey, for the first time in his tenure, fellow Republicans in the statehouse threatened to buck him.

It was a week that brought back to the surface the nagging question about Christie that he’s spent months trying to put to rest: Whether he has the discipline to survive the glare of the national stage.

“I don’t think one day or one week is a death sentence for a campaign. But it can reinforce negative perceptions of a candidate, and I think Christie’s experience this week should be a wake-up call. And he and his team are going to have to deal with that,” said Jim Dyke, a prominent Republican strategist in South Carolina and a former top Republican National Committee official. “Because as we all know in presidential politics, there’s an ability for things to spiral out of control.”

Christie’s three-day London venture had been in the works for nearly two months; aides had packed his scheduled with meetings with Prime Minister David Cameron, British Chancellor George Osborne, and members of the cabinet. But it went awry on Monday when Christie was asked whether he believed parents should vaccinate their children amid a measles outbreak. He said that he’d vaccinated his own children, but that parents needed “to have some measure of choice in things as well, so that’s the balance that the government has to decide.”

His response drew a firestorm of criticism, including from Republicans who said the party risked going down a dangerous path by calling for parental choice in vaccines.

His spokesman quickly walked back the response. But a day later, Christie refused to answer questions posed to him by reporters about what foreign policy issues had come up during his meetings with British leaders.

“Is there something you don’t understand about ‘no questions’?” he said.

In the end, the trip undermined arguably Christie’s chief strength: His image a plainspoken truth-teller.

“It was horrible,” said Dave Carney, a Republican strategist in New Hampshire who was a top aide on Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential campaign. “No campaign could have thought this was a good week…it became about him not wanting to answer questions.”

Just as damaging, perhaps, was the new scrutiny into Christie’s conduct. On Tuesday, the New York Times published a story detailing his expensive travel habits, including fancy hotels and trips paid for by foreign governments. Then on Thursday came the revelation that Christie’s administration was under investigation for allegedly quashing indictments against several of the governor’s political allies.

The unflattering stories came at a sensitive time for Christie. Many of Christie’s allies had hoped he he’d moved on from the “Bridgegate” scandal that erupted just over a year ago and nearly derailed his governorship. And it comes as many donors and activists are starting to ponder which candidate to support. With so many other Republicans in the race, including establishment favorites like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the risk for Christie is that the party faithful will seek a candidate without his baggage and question marks.

Christie's terrible week Monday Christie, in London, says that he’s had his kids vaccinated for measles, but suggests they shouldn’t be mandatory and that parents should be able to decide. His office later clarified, saying, “The governor believes vaccines are an important public health protection and with a disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated.” Tuesday The New York Times publishes an article examining Christie’s expensive travel habits. Christie snaps at a reporter who asks him a foreign policy-related question: “Is there something you don’t understand about ‘no questions’?” Wednesday The Wall Street Journal reports that some Republicans in the state legislature are considering joining with Democrats to override Christie’s veto of a Port Authority reform bill. Thursday Several news organizations report that Christie’s administration is under federal investigation for allegedly trying to quash indictments of political allies.

Ray Washburne, a former RNC finance chairman who recently signed on as Christie’s top fundraiser, dismissed the ethics questions as Beltway chatter and said most GOP donors and power brokers wouldn’t be committing to a single candidate at such an early juncture. “We’re in the ‘making friends’ stage,” Washburne said.

As Christie struggles in the presidential campaign, he is also confronting obstacles back home — some of them from his own party. This week, some Republicans in the state legislature said they were considering joining with Democrats to override a Christie veto to reform the Port Authority, the agency at the center of the bridge scandal.

While Christie was in London, Republican Party officials in New Jersey were holding a confab in Atlantic City and privately grumbling that he wasn’t in attendance. In recent weeks, some GOP honchos in the state, including Larry Bathgate, a prominent attorney and former Christie supporter, have thrown their support to Bush.

“I gotta say, the guy is getting beat up a lot,” said Michael Doherty, a Republican state senator who is a Christie critic. “I’ll give him credit for hanging in there. I think lesser folks would have broken down by now.”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose 2012 presidential campaign some highs and many lows, said Christie’s experience isn’t exceptional.

“Everyone has rough patches,” Gingrich said. “The question is how you move forward.”