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From that perch, Christie can raise perhaps $50 million next year and borrow the fundraising networks of every other GOP governor. They will owe him. And together, those networks are worth $250 million. That is Hillary scale, something none of his current challengers can access as easily. And then there is the outside money. In 2012 several billionaires were involved in the draft-Christie movement. They failed, but they haven't gone away. "I will do anything I can to convince this guy to say he is running," says Kenneth Langone, a co-founder of Home Depot, who was a guest of honor at Christie's election-night celebration. Asked if that could include contributing to a super PAC, which can spend donations of any size to support Christie, Langone said, "I'd do it in a heartbeat."
The money will be needed, because the campaign will be a long and ugly grind. America wouldn't have it any other way. Like McCain and Romney before him, Christie is wide open to attack from his right. He opposes gay marriage, but in October he called off a legal fight to block same-sex unions in New Jersey, earning the ire of Christian conservatives who promptly complained of "serious" concerns about Christie's "reliability." He recently flipped positions to support discounted college tuition for undocumented students in New Jersey, and his record on guns is full of targets. Asked by Sean Hannity in 2009 if every one of his state's residents should be allowed to own a firearm, Christie shot back, "That's not going to happen." Despite his talk on lower taxes there are vulnerabilities there too. Among them: his support for a reduction in tax credits and increasing tolls. And then there is the long list of minor scandals and alleged improprieties he will have to weather as rival campaigns hunt for the skeletons in his closet. (See "What Held Him Back," page 30.)
But the biggest barrier to a Christie win is more existential. He is betting that the Republican Party will return to what it has always been--even though it has not been acting that way in recent months. In a party where screaming purebloods rule, even against their own best interests, Christie is betting that a screaming mudblood can redirect the furies toward pragmatism and away from ideology. To win, he will have to rely on his substantial charisma. "He was able through sheer force of personality in the governor's race to completely escape a discussion of the issues, because he became more of a cultural figure than a politician," says one Democratic operative who worked against him this year. That matters in the modern era, when the most successful politicians can all do star turns on Saturday Night Live and The View. In New Jersey, Christie has done more than 100 town halls in recent years, using them as popular lances against his opponents. No one doubts he has a feel for the jugular and the ability to connect that Romney lacked.
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