I'll root for Chris Christie, even without a local tie

Jun. 28—My local reporter radar perked up when I read in a recent New York Times story that Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie had plans for a self-storage facility in New London.

After all, the Navy once gave the region some ties to presidential politics, with presidential candidate John McCain having lived as a child in New London, when his father was stationed at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton.

And of course Jimmy Carter was a nuclear submariner, bestowing on him gold-plated eastern Connecticut credentials.

Indeed, a Christie-New London connection first surfaced in some news stories back in 2019 about an investment fund the former New Jersey governor was forming ― to take advantage of the Trump tax cuts for investment in poor areas, like New London.

The original stories said the fund was planning some apartments in New Jersey and self-storage units in New London. Subsequent stories in the national business press said the fund never raised as much money as planned.

And I couldn't find any record of the fund's ownership of property in New London. It may be we will never see Christie-created storage units here and whatever that investment might have done for the city.

Of course I also doubt the country will see Christie win the Republican presidential nomination. It in fact its more likely we'd eventually see the self-storage facility here.

Still, Christie has certainly emerged as my favorite candidate in the Republican field.

I took a dim view of him as New Jersey governor, back when the very talented veteran of The Day's newsroom, Ted Mann, writing for the Wall Street Journal, turned a traffic problem on the George Washington Bridge into a national political scandal for the Christie administration.

A "time for some traffic problems," email exposed the bridge traffic as obvious political payback.

A Christie appearance in Groton in 2014, at a rally for gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley and his running mate Heather Somers of Groton, also didn't make me a fan.

But I have to say, as Christie emerges as a principal Trump heckler, calling out the former president as a grifter, I am becoming more impressed.

Indeed, he's a Republican presidential contender who has emerged as the Trump truth teller, opining that it would be absurd for the party to nominate someone who is under indictment.

Christie is also quick to return Trump's insults, noting, when attacked for his weight, that Trump is hardly an Adonis.

I know. I know. We all remember when Christie was an embarrassing Trump sycophant. But he does seem to realize that traditional Republicans need to pull their party back from the brink.

I hope his campaign plans for some stops in Connecticut, where Republicans still need some schooling on Trump bashing, before it's too late for their party here to move on.

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com