By David Cruz
Correspondent
When Jeb Bush announced that he was going to “actively explore the possibility of running for president” he used social media to do it. It is unlikely that Chris Christie, the loquacious glad-hander from Mendham, will be as low key when, or if, he decides to do likewise. Jose Arango is chairman of the New Jersey Republican Chairman’s Association, and, he notes, a Christie supporter.
“I think having Chris Christie supposedly running for president and having Jeb Bush. I think the Republican party is very lucky,” Arango said.
But, it’s highly unlikely that Bush would be a running mate for Christie — or vice versa — so, assuming both run in the primaries, they will, according to most analysts, pull votes from the same pool, which, says GOP strategist Jeanette Hoffman, is not necessarily a bad thing.
“You know I think the media makes too much of it — oh, there’s two moderates in the race. I think Republicans will be well served by a number of strong Republican presidential candidates, whether that be Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz. There’s a number of strong Republicans,” Hoffman said.
In the small but — Republicans hope — growing number of Latino Republicans and would-be Republicans, the GOP sees a group from which the party will need to get support, especially in a general election. Both Bush and Christie have made inroads with Latinos, Christie bending somewhat on the Dream Act in New Jersey and Bush, well, he’s almost an honorary Latino in Florida, his facility with Spanish impressive for a non-Latino pol.
“Creo que es buena persona, no estoy diciendo que no,” Bush said.
Whereas, Christie, when asked if he speaks any foreign language or plans to study any foreign languages said, “No. No. … English is the main language in our country, so that’s probably the one that’s needed to be president of the United States.”
“I’m a Hispanic, I’m Jose Arango. I think I even have an accent like Ricky Ricardo and Chris Christie is the person that made me who I am here today,” said Arango.
But almost as importantly as where they might battle for votes is how these two would battle for dollars, millions upon millions of which will be required to finance a run through the GOP primaries. While Bush getting in early may draw attention, it probably won’t have a major impact on where the money goes, yet.
“I think right now, in early 2015, the game is going to be a fundraising game,” Hoffman said. “There are a lot of donors that are looking for a strong Republican leader.”
It is early and Christie has barely flinched at the Bush announcement, but, as the first one to make an announcement, Bush served notice. Now, it’s up to the others to say they think they can do better.