NJ Gov 2017: Who's the best NJ Republican to keep the governorship?

[Suburbia]

When Chris Christie is term-limited in 2017, who's the best Republican that you know of in New Jersey to retain the seat?
Will they distance from Gov. Chris Christie's legacy?

http://www.politickernj.com/63177/2017-gubernatorial-sweepstakes

[windjammer]

Kean

[IceSpear]

Kean

[TX Conservative Dem]

Guadango: assuming Christie's approval ratings are holding up in 3 years.

[smoltchanov]

Allen, because of her wide crossover appeal. But her health will not allow her to run difficult campaign

[Simfan34]

My dad or my friend's dad. The latter being Bramnick. Otherwise Kean.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Kean is probably the GOP's best shot, but he's not really a good candidate. His 2006 run stunk. He's not exactly the best Senate Minority Leader the state has ever had, either.

Guadagno is the Lt. Governor, but her name recognition is zero and her position has no real power. The position didn't even exist before she took office in 2010.

My dark horse pick would be State Sen. Jennifer Beck of Red Bank. She's still fairly youthful and enjoys a lot of local crossover appeal. She could play well statewide.

[sg0508]

Kean wouldn't have much of a chance.  That 2006 Senate campaign he ran was one of the worst in recent memory (a running theme of GOP Senate campaigns).  Yes, gubernatorial races are more bi-partisan, but he left a major stench with that trainwreck in 2006.

[Suburbia]

Kean is probably the GOP's best shot, but he's not really a good candidate. His 2006 run stunk. He's not exactly the best Senate Minority Leader the state has ever had, either.

Guadagno is the Lt. Governor, but her name recognition is zero and her position has no real power. The position didn't even exist before she took office in 2010.

My dark horse pick would be State Sen. Jennifer Beck of Red Bank. She's still fairly youthful and enjoys a lot of local crossover appeal. She could play well statewide.

I would say two years later, Guadagno and Beck would be the best choices for the GOP. I could see these women being president one day.

http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/bio.asp?Leg=351

[henster]

I just don't see a Republican succeeding Christie.

[Kingpoleon]

Rivera would be... Interesting. I'd gladly endorse him. Other than that, Beck, Webber, Lobiondo, Kean, in that order.

[JMT]

My guess is that Guadagno runs with the backing of Chris Christie and wins the primary, other republican candidates may stay out of the race if she runs. She'll then go on to lose to the democratic nominee.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Dems arent gonna lose another race in NJ. Ray Lesniack is favored

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

The GOP has close to zero chance, but I'd say Jennifer Beck is probably the high reward candidate they need, but her chances are still very tiny. Higher ceiling than the rest, but I don't know how she'd do statewide.

[Miles]

Guadagno is the only Republican I'd consider voting for, but this:

I just don't see a Republican succeeding Christie.

[Vega]

I wonder if there will be a pattern of the incumbent Governors who ran in 2016 getting succeeded by a Democrat. Happened to Jindal, might happen to Christie and Kasich, too.

[Miles]

^ And we can only hope Walker, too.

[GPORTER]

^ And we can only hope Walker, too.

A perfect world for me would include Governor Guadango in New Jersey in two thousand and eighteen and Scott Walker reelected in Wisconsin in two thousand and eighteen. People not familiar with politics in America after reading that sentence need to know there are no term limits for governors in Wisconsin. There are in New Jersey. There are not any term limits for governors in New York. I want for Scott Walker/Rebecca Kleefisch to show us what Ronald Reagan/George HW Bush nineteen hundred and eighty eight would have looked like but in Wisconsin and thirty years later. Ronald Reagan wasn't a candidate for President of the United States in nineteen hundred and eighty eight for one reason. Because he was constitutionally disqualified. Guadango running in New Jersey will be like asking New Jersey voters for a Truman beats Dewey seventy years later. Except for the fact that Harry Truman is a Democrat. I was really impressed by the performance of Kim Guadango in the 2013 lieutenant governor debate. It was clear that her opponent was running for public office for the first time. Mario Cuomo the great governor of New York in nineteen hundred and ninety five was like a child playing with friends outside at night. He is the one that had to come in early. Governor Walker and lieutenant governor Kleefisch have already  proved the pundits wrong more than once. Scott Walker is a very composed man. He won Wisconsin three times in four years. If I were him I would go for the third term no matter who the President of the United States is.
All of that to say the pundits will say that Republicans in two thousand and eighteen and two thousand and seventeen by the way will have better chances at electoral success if a Democrat is President. The money for a third make that fourth campaign for governor of Wisconsin on the part of governor Walker is money in my opinion well spent. To clarify the fourth election campaign would be two thousand and eighteen; Walker survived a recall vote statewide in Wisconsin in 2012. Those pundits like weathermen and women. Enough said. Back to New York in nineteen hundred and ninety four I am no fan normally of a young and unqualified man for public office. Yes Bob Dole and Rudy Giuliani have been on opposite ends of the fence before. I side with Giuliani on nineteen hundred and ninety four. George Pataki was only a state senator who ousted a three term incumbent governor of New York. Rudy Giuliani was mayor of New York City in nineteen hundred and ninety four and Bob Dole senate minority leader. The very base of the Democratic party in New York is New York City. Rudy Giuliani that year called out George Pataki while simultaneously endorsing Democrat Mario Cuomo. I think the battle of American politics is once you have power holding onto it. It pits some independent minded people into bitter divides. George Pataki's wife was bitter at Rudy Giuliani for years. She probably still is. So New Jersey and Wisconsin in a couple of years will be a dynamic opportunity for the fight in American politics to hold onto power to be put on display.

[Sir Mohamed]

They will lose it anyway. Christie is very unpopular and it's a deep blue state.

[andrew_c]

I say none of the above, as Christie has burned every bridge with crossover voters, and essentially relegated the NJ GOP to long-term opposition status.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Kean b/c name recognition, but the GOP is getting whupped like no tomorrow in 2017 here in good ol' NJ.

[Badger]

My dad or my friend's dad. The latter being Bramnick. Otherwise Kean.

For realz?

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Kean, or maybe Runyan if he goes for it.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Kean has 47% of the votes in this poll.

[sg0508]

Kean was a disaster in that Senate campaign.