Though the response to Chris Christie's veto of gay marriage in New Jersey has been unsurprisingly mixed in the Garden State (where a majority support marriage equality) it doesn't seem to have hurt the gov on the national stage—which was pretty much the point.
According to a new poll by Fairleigh Dickenson University's PublicMind, Christie is on the short list in the public's mind for who should take the VP spot in the GOP ticket this year. Christie polled only behind Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Rick Santorum in the poll, which was phrased as an open-ended question—meaning voters suggested the roly-poly governor without prompt.
In the poll Christie was mentioned 47 times (6 percent), way up from the number of times he was mentioned two months ago (29). He came in ahead of no less than Sarah Palin (35 mentions), Newt Gingrich (32 mentions), Ron Paul (30 mentions) and Michelle Bachman (16 mentions). To give a sense of just how much salt to take this poll with, however, no less than GOP boogey woman Hillary Clinton, lifelong Democrat, made the list with 10 mentions!
Meanwhile, the fight for marriage equality in the Garden State continues. Assuming it does not go to a referendum, as Christie has proposed, the Legislature now has until January 2014 to rack up enough votes to secure two-thirds in both houses in order to override Christie's veto. It won't be easy, but, as the Times editorial board notes: "In January 2010, New Jersey’s Senate defeated the same-sex marriage bill by a vote of 20 to 14. On Tuesday, the bill cleared the Senate 24 to 16, with two Republican members voting with the majority. This isn’t about theater and shouldn’t be about politics. Marriage equality is a basic right."
