Christie ’16 to join coalition of NJ Republican delegates supporting Trump

Andrew Christie ’16 has joined the growing coalition of New Jersey Republican delegates supporting businessman Donald Trump for the Republican Presidential Nomination.

In the upcoming New Jersey Republican Primary on Tuesday, June 7, Andrew Christie will be one of 12 at-large delegates — delegates chosen by official Republican state committee members — who are backing the New York businessman for president.

On that same list of at-large delegates is Andrew Christie’s father and current New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, an ex-officio trustee of the University, as well as former members of Christie’s senior staff.

Andrew Christie did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Trump’s campaign office in New Jersey did not respond to requests for comment.

11 of New Jersey’s twenty-one Republican county chairs are also on the list of delegates for Trump, both as district delegates and alternate delegates.

This notice follows Christie’s announcement in February that he would be endorsing Trump for the Republican presidential nomination and that he would be encouraging other Republican political leaders in New Jersey to do likewise.

New Jersey is a “winner-take-all state,” which means that the majority winner of the Republican primary will receive the state’s entire district and at-large delegates. Additionally, three state party leaders — in New Jersey’s case the state party chair and the national committeeman and committeewoman — will be bound delegates to the Republican National Convention in July, where they will necessarily pledge their support to the winner of New Jersey’s Republican primary.

Dan Cassino, associate professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson University, said he is not at all surprised by the announcement that New Jersey’s 12 at-large delegates are all supporting Donald Trump.

“Every candidate is trying to fill up those at-large delegates in each state with their own supporters,” Cassino said, “The [New Jersey Republican] State Party is picking the at-large delegates at these very smoke-filled backrooms with few people attending… and because Chris Christie is the leader of the New Jersey Republican Party, he can control whom these delegates work for.”

Cassino said that the State Party’s appointment of Andrew Christie and other firm Trump supporters as at-large delegates “smacks of crony-ism,” but the noted that this is simply how delegates are typically set up.

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Cassino also added that at-large delegates at the RNC are forced to pledge their vote for Trump in the overall presidential election but have total freedom to vote either way on “rules votes.” In these votes, which propose changes in the rules within the Republican Party Election process, those delegates who may be pledged to Trump but do not actually support him as president could vote for rules that would prevent Trump’s nomination.

“The whole idea of appointing [Andrew Christie] is to get someone as loyal as possible because the other side is going to do anything to entice these delegates to go against Trump at the RNC,” he explained.

Regarding Chris Christie’s controversial endorsement of Donald Trump in the first place, Stanley Katz, professor in public affairs at the Wilson School, noted that the governor’s support of Trump is a sign that Chris Christie has seen the writing on the wall with his time in New Jersey.

“We have to assume that [Chris Christie] understands that his political career in New Jersey is all over,” Katz said. “Christie has been a disaster as Governor of New Jersey not only because he has been here so little, but also because he promised to solve the economic problems of the state and they’ve only gotten worse under his governorship."

Katz reasoned that due to what appears to be a dearth of political avenues left for Chris Christie, he decided to endorse someone who may, as a potential President of the United States, offer the New Jersey governor a federal appointment.

Katz is in fact unsure of how exactly Chris Christie will even benefit Trump’s campaign.

“I think it’s very hard to see that the governor represents a distinctive political stance within the Republican Party at this point… it’s just hard to see what he adds,” Katz said.

In the 2016 election cycle, New Jersey will be sending 51 delegates to the Republican National Convention: 10 at-large delegates, three Republican Party leaders, 36 Congressional district delegates and two bonus delegates.

During this primary stage prior to the RNC, each state is allocated 10 “at-large delegates.” If any at-large delegate is unable to attend the Convention, an alternate delegate will take his or her place. Three Republican leaders in that state will also be awarded a delegate seat, and each state will also receive three “district delegates” for every Congressional district in the state, regardless of the party to which the Congressman in that district belongs.

Finally, each state is granted “bonus delegates” based upon the number of elected Republican officials in state and federal positions, and upon the results of the previous presidential elections in each state. Because of this system, states that have a record of being the most right-leaning will generally be awarded the most Republican delegates.