Chris Christie's post-New Hampshire plan: A wing and a prayer
His campaign infrastructure beyond the first two states is almost non-existent.
By Daniel Strauss
December 16, 2105
Politico
The past few weeks have been the best of Chris Christie’s campaign. He’s bagged important endorsements, gained ground in New Hampshire and his once-moribund campaign is suddenly getting a second look.
His investment in New Hampshire, the state that’s pivotal to his chances of winning the nomination, finally seems to be paying off: Powered by his poll numbers there, Christie returned to the main stage of the Republican presidential debate on Tuesday where his forceful performance quickly started trending on Twitter.
But there's one glaring problem: Christie has almost no campaign infrastructure beyond the first-in-the-nation primary state.
Most of the campaign’s time and resources have been devoted to New Hampshire, with Iowa a distant second. The third state on the primary calendar, South Carolina, trails far behind, whether measured in terms of staffing or time spent there.
As of last week, Christie had visited New Hampshire 50 times, held 36 town halls there and more than 112 events in total. In Iowa, a town hall in Mason City last week was his 11th in 22 days of campaigning. On Saturday, he begins a three-day swing through New Hampshire where the governor will have eight more meet-and-greets and town halls.
By comparison, Christie has spent a total of just six days in South Carolina.
In both Iowa and New Hampshire, he’s got a handful of staffers in each state. But in South Carolina, Christie has just one operative on the ground — whom the campaign declines to name. He currently has no full-time paid staffers in states beyond South Carolina.
Without any organization to plug into, Christie runs the risk of not being able to capitalize on any momentum gained from a strong New Hampshire performance.
"I certainly agree with making New Hampshire the priority. It appears to be working to some extent," said Mike Dennehy, who ran Sen. John McCain's campaign efforts in New Hampshire. "However, if you have next to nothing in the following primary state then any strong showing will be as useful as it is for Jon Huntsman in 2012. Which is basically worthless."
The Christie campaign insists there’s still time to get organized in South Carolina and later states. Already, they note, the governor's campaign — with the help of both staff and volunteers — is gathering signatures to get on the ballot or has gotten on the ballot in a number of upcoming primary states.
"I think the proof that we can expand as needed is happening now in that we already have an infrastructure in place that is getting us on the ballot in a lot of these states," Christie campaign chief strategist Mike DuHaime said. "A lot of the infrastructure can be built after you get there, after you get there or as you are moving you can staff around from other places.”
At the moment, the pro-Christie super PAC America Leads is also focused on the first two early-voting states. Tucker Martin, a consultant and spokesman for America Leads, signaled that his organization had no current plans beyond boosting the governor in New Hampshire and Iowa.
"America Leads exists for one purpose: to help Governor Christie win the nomination and The White House. We are constantly making strategic decisions with those two clear goals in mind, and that’s how we will continue to approach the race," Martin said in an email earlier this month.. "Obviously we’ve done the bulk of our work to date in New Hampshire, and the governor is making very significant progress in the state. We have also recently gone up with both digital and radio advertising in Iowa. As the campaign moves forward we will continue to evaluate where our efforts will do the most good for the governor."
For the Christie campaign, though, it's first things first. DuHaime expressed confidence that the campaign is capable of quickly assembling an organization for competing in South Carolina and beyond when the time comes — despite the huge head start the governor's rivals will have.
"For us, it's a matter of timing on when to do that," DuHaime said of staffing up in more states. "I know there are campaigns that are choosing to spend money now in some of these states that are later in the calendar and we're choosing not to, but that doesn't mean that we can't move quickly and we don't have people that are with us in those states and the ability to build an infrastructure very quickly."
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His investment in New Hampshire, the state that’s pivotal to his chances of winning the nomination, finally seems to be paying off: Powered by his poll numbers there, Christie returned to the main stage of the Republican presidential debate on Tuesday where his forceful performance quickly started trending on Twitter.
But there's one glaring problem: Christie has almost no campaign infrastructure beyond the first-in-the-nation primary state.
Most of the campaign’s time and resources have been devoted to New Hampshire, with Iowa a distant second. The third state on the primary calendar, South Carolina, trails far behind, whether measured in terms of staffing or time spent there.
As of last week, Christie had visited New Hampshire 50 times, held 36 town halls there and more than 112 events in total. In Iowa, a town hall in Mason City last week was his 11th in 22 days of campaigning. On Saturday, he begins a three-day swing through New Hampshire where the governor will have eight more meet-and-greets and town halls.
By comparison, Christie has spent a total of just six days in South Carolina.
In both Iowa and New Hampshire, he’s got a handful of staffers in each state. But in South Carolina, Christie has just one operative on the ground — whom the campaign declines to name. He currently has no full-time paid staffers in states beyond South Carolina.
Without any organization to plug into, Christie runs the risk of not being able to capitalize on any momentum gained from a strong New Hampshire performance.
"I certainly agree with making New Hampshire the priority. It appears to be working to some extent," said Mike Dennehy, who ran Sen. John McCain's campaign efforts in New Hampshire. "However, if you have next to nothing in the following primary state then any strong showing will be as useful as it is for Jon Huntsman in 2012. Which is basically worthless."
The Christie campaign insists there’s still time to get organized in South Carolina and later states. Already, they note, the governor's campaign — with the help of both staff and volunteers — is gathering signatures to get on the ballot or has gotten on the ballot in a number of upcoming primary states.
"I think the proof that we can expand as needed is happening now in that we already have an infrastructure in place that is getting us on the ballot in a lot of these states," Christie campaign chief strategist Mike DuHaime said. "A lot of the infrastructure can be built after you get there, after you get there or as you are moving you can staff around from other places.”
At the moment, the pro-Christie super PAC America Leads is also focused on the first two early-voting states. Tucker Martin, a consultant and spokesman for America Leads, signaled that his organization had no current plans beyond boosting the governor in New Hampshire and Iowa.
"America Leads exists for one purpose: to help Governor Christie win the nomination and The White House. We are constantly making strategic decisions with those two clear goals in mind, and that’s how we will continue to approach the race," Martin said in an email earlier this month.. "Obviously we’ve done the bulk of our work to date in New Hampshire, and the governor is making very significant progress in the state. We have also recently gone up with both digital and radio advertising in Iowa. As the campaign moves forward we will continue to evaluate where our efforts will do the most good for the governor."
For the Christie campaign, though, it's first things first. DuHaime expressed confidence that the campaign is capable of quickly assembling an organization for competing in South Carolina and beyond when the time comes — despite the huge head start the governor's rivals will have.
"For us, it's a matter of timing on when to do that," DuHaime said of staffing up in more states. "I know there are campaigns that are choosing to spend money now in some of these states that are later in the calendar and we're choosing not to, but that doesn't mean that we can't move quickly and we don't have people that are with us in those states and the ability to build an infrastructure very quickly."
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