NEWARK, N.J. — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Monday he won’t rush to make up his mind about whether to run for the White House, and said Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s first-out-the-gate announcement is not a factor in his timing.
Speaking on his monthly radio show, the Republican governor said there are “still things I’m working through and talking to my family about.” He said he expects to make a decision in late spring to early summer. Cruz became the first major 2016 contender to declare himself a candidate earlier Monday.
Christie has been traveling across the county, meeting potential backers and raising money. He spent the weekend hobnobbing with big-money donors in Florida and will be attending fundraisers in Philadelphia and Texas later this week.
Christie said he wouldn’t run unless he thought he could beat Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is widely expected to seek the Democratic nomination. “There’s no reason to run unless you think you can,” he said. “If I ran, I wouldn’t be in it for the experience.”
Christie also commented on Clinton’s exclusive use of private email during her time as secretary of state. “My answer is that people should follow the law,” he said.
New Jersey has no law on the books that requires the use of state email accounts for state business, but Christie said that, following “the incidents of January 2014,” the governor’s office has adopted a policy that requires staff to maintain state email accounts and conduct business through those accounts.
Attorneys hired by Christie to investigate allegations that his aides created traffic chaos near the George Washington Bridge in an act of political payback recommended revising the office’s rules to restrict the use of personal email accounts for official government business after it was revealed that staffers many were communicating via private accounts. (AP)
