Chris Christie sources say he still may run

WASHINGTON — Chris Christie’s political advisers are working to determine whether they could move fast enough to set up effective political operations in Iowa and New Hampshire in the wake of a relentless courtship aimed at persuading Mr. Christie, the governor of New Jersey, to plunge into the race for the Republican presidential nomination, according to operatives briefed on the preparations.


Mr. Christie has not yet decided whether to run and has not authorized the start of a full-fledged campaign operation. But with the governor now seriously considering getting in, his strategists — many of them veterans of Rudolph W. Giuliani’s 2008 campaign — are internally assessing the financial and logistical challenges of mounting a race with less than 100 days until voting is likely to begin.


Those challenges include not only raising money, but also spending it effectively in the crucial states with early primaries. That would mean meeting filing deadlines, hiring staff members, recruiting volunteers, putting together a travel schedule and devising a media campaign.


“They’re getting their arms around what’s going to be required,” said a political operative who has been briefed on the deliberations among Mr. Christie’s team. “What does an operation look like? What are the requirements in each of the states? What are the things that need to be done before we talk about people and résumés and office space?”


Mr. Christie’s advisers said on Saturday that no formal planning for a campaign would begin unless the governor made a decision to run. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, they said current efforts are nothing more than “due diligence” should Mr. Christie decide to make a bid. One senior adviser said no campaign is under way but expressed confidence that one could be started in 24 hours if needed.


The high-level advisers also said the flurry of political activity around Mr. Christie includes unsolicited strategic advice and offers of help from potential donors and consultants who are eager to see him run but are not part of the governor’s inner circle. Friends say that only Mr. Christie can decide what is right for him.


“This is a very smart guy who can figure this out for himself, and I think that’s all that needs to be said,” said William Palatucci, a close confidant of Mr. Christie. He played down any immediate campaign planning, saying that his own weekend plans included “going to pick up my daughter from her sleepover and going to get my cleaning from the cleaners.”


Those pushing Mr. Christie to run include the media mogul Rupert Murdoch, former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, Nancy Reagan and the conservative columnist William Kristol.


If the odds of a campaign were very low just weeks ago, they are increasing.


A hastily put together campaign would upend what two of Mr. Christie’s advisers said was his original plan: to consider running for president in 2016. But with President Obama looking more vulnerable, and with dissatisfaction among some voters and influential party leaders with the current Republican field, Mr. Christie is said by those close to him to feel that his best opportunity to run might be now.


“They have to run a billion-dollar operation, which they weren’t prepared to do,” said a second political operative who was briefed on the deliberations among Mr. Christie’s team. “For the first time, they are actually considering it seriously.”


“He’s definitely our strongest candidate in November,” US Rep. Peter King (R) of New York told the New York Post. “He’s the closest we have to putting together the old Reagan Democratic coalition.”


Of course, no one close to Christie says anything definitive on the record. Who’d want to get out front of a man of Christie’s Falstaffian heft?


Speaking of which, columnists (including the Monitor’s) have felt free in recent days to comment on Christie’s ample (and perhaps unhealthy) girth as a factor in whether he’s qualified to be president. Christie himself has spoken of his weight problem.


But there’s been pushback to that line of thinking.


Writing in New York magazine (under the headline “Chris Christie Is Fat. So What?”) Jonathan Chait argues that “the American overclass prizes thinness to a degree that is actually unhealthy, and the disgust privileged Americans feel toward fat people, who are more likely to be poor and middle-class, dresses itself up as medical advice.”


“Why does his weight matter at all?” Chait asks. “The only real reasoning I see here is that American elites view obesity with disgust, and they’re repulsed at the notion that a very fat guy could rise to a position of symbolic leadership. It’s not a very attractive sentiment.”


Believe it or not, some see the issue as one of civil rights. The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (whose slogan is “We come in all sizes”), for example.