New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie isn’t ruling the possibility of a contested convention should his ally, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, not win the Michigan primary on Tuesday. However, he all but ruled out that he would a candidate at the contested convention.
On Sunday’s “Face the Nation” on CBS, the New Jersey governor explained how if Romney wins Michigan, it will pave the way to his the eventual nomination.
“I’m with Gov. Romney, and one of the things people know about me is that when I make up my mind it pretty much stays made,” Christie said. “I mean you know, now listen — is there a possibility if Gov. Romney were to lose Michigan for a … contested convention? Sure. That’s a possibility. I still don’t think it’s a likelihood, though. First of all, I think he’s going to win Michigan. And after that I think he’ll continue to establish momentum but this is going to go up and down. We’ve seen this race. Herman Cain was a frontrunner. Michele Bachmann was a frontrunner. You know, they’re out of the race now. Rick Perry was a frontrunner. So, I think we have to be patient as Republicans — take a deep breath and let this process work its way out. But I think that Gov. Romney is going to be the nominee at the end. People love to talk about contested conventions.”
Christie explained he had no intentions of getting in the race should a contest convention occur. And he said that once this race is settled, Romney will have an opportunity to attack Obama for his record.
“No, I didn’t say that at all,” he replied to host Bob Schieffer. “I just said that I’m not going to deny that that possibility exists that we could have a contested convention. But I still think it’s unlikely, very unlikely. I think Gov. Romney when he gets to Tampa the last week of August will have a majority of the delegates and will be the nominee. And then we’ll get to focus in the last 67 days of the race on the president of the United States and his record, the promises from ’08 and the failure to meet that promises in the four years that he’s had as president. That’s what we’re going to be focusing on then. A lot of this other stuff you’ve been asking me about — perfectly appropriate questions but that will be water well under the bridge by the time we get to August.”