Storm, scandal send Christie, McDonnell on different paths

Stephen C. Fehr, Pew/Stateline Staff Writer

October 18, 2013

Four years ago, Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Robert F. McDonnell of Virginia were stars. Both Republicans, they had just been elected to lead states carried the year before by Democrat Barack Obama. Both broke a string of Democratic governors in their states by emphasizing fiscal policy instead of social issues.

The New Jerseyan's straight talk and substantial girth marked him as an unconventional politician. The Virginian's results-oriented style led fellow GOP governors to pick the former Army officer as their leader in the crucial 2012 election cycle. Party stalwarts talked up a national ticket in 2016 with one or both their names on it.

Today, the Christie-McDonnell narrative has been revised in a way no one could have foreseen as recently as a year ago. Christie appears headed towards an easy re-election on Nov. 5, and he is among the best known Republicans expected to run for president in 2016. But McDonnell, who under Virginia law cannot succeed himself, will leave office in January stained by a scandal that threatens to derail his 22-year political career.....

"Unfortunately this extraordinary accomplishment of a bipartisan transportation bill that eluded so many of his predecessors will be overshadowed by this scandal," said Stephen J. Farnsworth, a professor at the University of Mary Washington. "Because of the sordid nature of the scandal it is difficult to imagine the governor winning an elected office again."

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