Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie speaks at the Freedom Summit in Des Moines, Iowa, January 24, 2015.
Credit: Reuters/Jim Young
(Reuters) - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and his supporters have formed a political action committee ahead of a likely bid for president, adding a third well-known Republican figure to the fight for campaign funds among the party's core donor class, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
The new political action committee, or PAC, called Leadership Matters for America, is the clearest sign yet that Christie is running. The Wall Street Journal first reported the establishment of the PAC on Monday.
Among those serving on the PAC are long-time Christie allies Michael DuHaime and Bill Palatucci, as well as Phil Cox, executive director of the Republican Governors Association, the source said. Christie was chairman of the RGA until he was succeeded in November by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam.
Paperwork for the leadership PAC was filed on Friday with the Federal Election Commission, the source said.
Christie, 52, has not declared a bid for the presidency, but he has discussed national themes in recent speeches and was in Iowa, an important state in the primary elections, this weekend for a summit attended by influential Republican activists.
Christie, who many conservatives see as a moderate, touted his ability to appeal to a broad segment of the electorate, from Hispanics to independent voters.
He said the party needs crossover appeal and made light of his blunt, direct style that sometimes draws criticism. "If you want someone you agree with 100 percent of the time, go home and look in the mirror," Christie said in Iowa.
Christie has struggled to stay relevant as potential rivals, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and 2012 nominee Mitt Romney grabbed attention from operatives and donors aligned with the party's establishment.
According to a poll released last Thursday, nearly three in five registered voters in New Jersey do not think Christie would make a good U.S. president.
Christie's popularity was dented by revelations that officials in his administration ordered closures on the George Washington Bridge in 2013 in an apparent political retaliation against a town mayor who did not endorse him.
More recently, he's been immersed in a controversy over whether he should have gone to Texas for a Jan. 4 Dallas Cowboys game at the expense of team owner Jerry Jones.
Polls have consistently shown Bush ahead of Christie in a potential Republican presidential primary. Voters would also elect Democrat Hillary Clinton over Christie in the general election, according to the most recent polls.
(Reporting by Hilary Russ in New York and Supriya Kurane in Bengaluru; Editing by Catherine Evans and Grant McCool)
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