Will Chris Christie win New Hampshire?

Chris Christie was the nominal front-runner for the GOP nomination back in summer 2014. Then he fell down to asterisk territory, and was once even consigned to the J.V. debate this year.

Republican presidential candidate and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie takes a selfie with a supporter following an event to kick off a campaign bus tour in Exeter, New Hampshire December 19, 2015. Reuters

If you look closely now, however, he’s a legitimate contender.

The national polls still have him in the low single digits, but check out the New Hampshire:

Poll	Trump	Rubio	Christie	Cruz	Kasich	Bush
ARG	21	15	12	10	13	7
CBS	32	13	11	14	8	6
Boston Herald	26	12	11	12	8	10
WBUR	27	11	12	10	7	8
CNN	32	14	9	6	7	8
PPP	27	11	10	13	8	5

Christie’s RealClearPolitics average puts him in third place in New Hampshire. He’s second or within the margin of error of second place in the two polls conducted by local media (Boston Herald and WBUR). Christie has doubled his numbers from early November, and he’s climbing, while Rubio is basically flat over the past month.

Given Christie’s GOP establishment support in Iowa (today he added a former state party co-chair), it’s also not crazy to think he could finish third in the caucuses despite his currently dismal polling there.

Here’s a scenario that strikes me as not crazy:

Christie finishes third in Iowa, making him an attractive choice for anti-Cruz voters in New Hampshire, and for former Trump backers who now want an electable choice. This would put Christie in striking distance of a victory in New Hampshire.

Noah Rothman at Commentary got me thinking about Christie’s chances with this blog post, which links back to my early June piecepredicting a Christie boom at some point.

Timothy P. Carney, The Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at tcarney@washingtonexaminer.com. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.

from AEI » Latest Content http://ift.tt/1PsKgyz