Christie's Dem Challenger: HILLARY 'Wrote Me A Nice Letter — AFTER I LOST.'

[Chathamization]

54. My guess is

Part of it is that when the media decided that they loved Christie after Sandy, establishment Democrats decided they wanted to go along with the narrative. Establishment Democrats are pretty terrible at challenging media narratives - see the praise that they give Reagan, the concern over the deficit, the outrage over the fake IRS scandal, etc.

Another part is probably the well connected politicians looked at Christie's polling numbers and decided that it wasn't worth the effort. It seems like Booker was entertaining a run before Sandy, but afterwards opted to run for the senate instead.

As for local Democrats who endorsed Christie, I wouldn't be surprised if their party affiliation has more to do with being in a Democratic state than it does with any particular ideology.

I'm sure that someone who's involved with local Jersey politics could shed a lot more light on this. I'm sure there were a number of factors and personalities at play. It does make the local party in Jersey look like a mess (though I'm not sure ours is any better). Hopefully it will encourage some insurgent candidates to go after local strongmen with the "they endorsed Christie!" attack.