Just as he seems his term in the state coming to an end, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has taken on a new position in the federal administration, one meant to tackle the opioid epidemic nationally.
Trump established a commission to respond to the drug epidemic and placed his longtime political companion and friend on the board, which is led by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and which is meant to be a task force dedicated to identifying viable ways to address the growing epidemic.
If anything can give Christie’s career an unneeded jumpstart at this point, it’s the Trump administration. Some political commentators have suggested that Christie is making obvious attempts to ingratiate himself to the federal government in recent weeks, perhaps in a bid to secure a position for himself once his term officially comes to an end.
Although such possibilities are certainly in the realm of techniques Christie might conceivably use to advance his political career, it’s going to appear as an obviously ham-fisted attempt to remain relevant to the American public, who know him only as a lawmaker riddled with failure, suspicion and ill intent.
If he really wants to rejuvenate his image, he’d do best first of all to shake all association from the Trump administration. As of right now, Christie is remaining intentionally vague - he said he “had no interest” in a permanent role in the Trump administration, but he was willing to accept the temporary role to tackle the drug problem as it is relevant to his political career, according to the L.A. Times.
“He asked me to help with this and I'm going to. It's an issue that I care about a lot in New Jersey and for the country and so the president asked me to do this and I was happy to,” Christie said about accepting the position.
This followed some weeks of speculation that he would take the position, speculation that he denied by saying “Let me be very clear, we did not get into any discussion of me joining the current administration in some type of drug abuse role, some type of czar or, God forbid, surgeon general.”
Perhaps Christie has realized that it’s for the best that his political career not be dragged out for too long beyond his final months in office. Perhaps he recognizes the end of his career when it’s staring him in the face. Perhaps we can see the political career of Chris Christie finally come to an end.
The New Jersey governor has had a long and scandalous career. It’s involved bridges, some of the lowest approval ratings in the country, multiple calls for impeachment and some last-minute attempts to ingratiate himself to the Republican party. At multiple times, he fancied himself a potential candidate for the President of the United States of America.
The Republican governor has nine months left in office, but thanks to New Jersey term limits, his second term will be his final one, which means he will almost certainly be getting the boot from New Jersey politics in its entirety. Christie currently holds a 76 percent disapproval rating, and several Democratic contenders are already lining up to replace him on the ballot.