New Jersey’s Republican Governor Chris Christie came out in support of the tax compromise reached by President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans that passed the Senate Wednesday afternoon in an 81-19 vote.
“Governor Christie supports President Obama and Congressional Republicans’ compromise which ensures that during this difficult economic time no American is subject to a tax increase on January 1st,” Christie spokeswoman Maria Comella told NewsCore in a statement.
“However, if Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic lawmakers use this opportunity to insert additional, out of control spending measures, Governor Christie will oppose any bill amended in that way,” it continued.
The House of Representatives is expected to take up the measure passed by the Senate this week.
Christie’s support for the $858 billion compromise — which extends all the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts enacted by former President George W. Bush for two years and extends unemployment insurance for two million out-of-work Americans for 13 months – firmly puts him on record on an issue that is sure to dominate debate in the early stages of the 2012 Republican nominating process.
Christie, 48, a former federal prosecutor before becoming N.J. governor in January 2010, has consistently ruled out speculation that he may run for president in 2012, telling reporters in Trenton back in November that “short of suicide, I don’t really know what I’d have to do to convince you people that I’m not running.”
Nevertheless, Christie — beloved by conservatives for his budget-cutting measures and high-profile battles with teachers’ unions in the Garden state – has regularly showed up in the low single digits in GOP 2012 polling behind more established frontrunners like former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Christie’s support for the compromise puts him clearly on one side of the issue and in stark contrast to other potential 2012 candidates.
Romney, considered by most to be the Republican frontrunner at this early stage, came out against the compromise in a USA Today op-ed on Tuesday headlined “Tax deal, bad deal.”
Palin also appears to be against the deal, though she is yet to take a definitive public stance on the issue. “Obviously Obama is so very, very wrong on the economy & spins GOP tax cut goals; so fiscal conservatives: we expect you to fight for us,” she said in a tweet last week.
Meanwhile, Huckabee, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty have all come out in support of the deal.
“It’s easy to stand on the sidelines and criticize this proposal,” Thune said in a thinly veiled shot at Romney and others during a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday. “And it’s perhaps even politically expedient to stand on the sidelines and criticize this proposal,” he added.
Christie was a popular draw on the 2010 campaign trail, campaigning in multiple states for Republican candidates ahead of November’s midterm elections.
He was also the surprise winner of the Virginia Tea Party Patriots 2012 presidential straw poll in October.