Features August 25, 2010, 11:01PM EST

Governor Chris Christie: GOP Darling

New Jersey Governor Christie is a rising national star. By taking on his state's bloated budget, he embodies the New Austerity. Will voters hate him for it?

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Christopher Griffith

By Peter Coy

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Chris Christie is the lead actor in a new movie. It's a short film, no more than 20 minutes or so, yet its backer—the Republican Governors Assn.—expects to reap millions in donations from his brief appearance. The moody film features black-and-white images flashing by—storm clouds, campaign rallies, and urgent news clips from election-night broadcasts. A Republican has won the governor's race in New Jersey, a Democratic stronghold, and the party of Barack Obama has been rendered powerless by his take-no-prisoners style.

In less than eight months in office, Christie, a 47-year-old former prosecutor and lobbyist, has risen from an unknown to a signal attraction in the fund-raising and messaging wars. "I think he's a star," says Ed Rollins, who directed campaigns in 1984 for President Ronald Reagan and in 1993 for Christine Todd Whitman, the last Republican elected governor of New Jersey. (Rollins bragged of suppressing the anti-Whitman vote, then retracted the claim.)

When he moved into the New Jersey governor's office on Jan. 19, Christie faced a budget crisis of almost Greek proportions: Projected revenues for the coming fiscal year were nearly $11 billion short of what it would cost to fully fund every authorized program. Since then he has impounded more than $2 billion in unspent funds, fought off legislators' attempts to raise taxes, pushed through a budget that slashes spending, pressured schoolteachers to pay for their health-care benefits, and taken a first crack at fixing one of the nation's most underfunded pension systems. Christie says he's been contacted for advice by GOP gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman of California, Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, Bill Brady of Illinois, Chris Dudley of Oregon, Robert Ehrlich of Maryland, and Charlie Baker of Massachusetts. "People say to me, 'Can you really get it done in Massachusetts given that the overwhelming majority of the legislature is Democratic?' " says Baker. "I say, 'Drive down the Turnpike. Eventually you'll get there. That's exactly what's happening in New Jersey.' "

Christie's campaign to fix the finances of the state with the highest property taxes in the nation, and a $46 billion underfunding of its pension system, is still in its early stages. Victory is far from assured. Barbara Buono, the State Senate's second-highest-ranking Democrat and its top female, complains that the governor has been "brash and confrontational." Columnist Tom Moran of Newark's The Star-Ledger calls him "Governor Wrecking Ball." Democrats, who control both houses of the legislature, are resisting Christie's effort to reshape the state's Supreme Court by refusing to approve his nominee. The Communications Workers of America tried to add a special assessment to union dues in New Jersey specifically to combat him (the rank-and-file voted no). And with schools opening, parents who welcome fiscal austerity in the abstract are about to see first-hand evidence of the impact of reductions in state aid to education, which could weaken support for further cuts. Even now, before the belt-tightening has been fully felt, support is lukewarm; three public opinion polls taken over the summer had Christie's job approval rating at 44 percent to 51 percent.

Investors in the credit-default swap market aren't yet persuaded that Christie has found the key. The cost of insuring New Jersey government bonds against default for five years has risen to 2.17 percent of the bonds' face value annually from 1.56 percent when he was inaugurated. Swaps on New York and Pennsylvania have performed about the same. His administration's reputation for competence took a hit on Aug. 24 when New Jersey barely missed out on $400 million in federal Race to the Top grants, possibly because of an error in its application.

"There are so many political minefields in New Jersey," Christie said a day earlier in his high-ceilinged office in the State House. "If you spend your whole time looking down for mines, you can't see the future." Christie says he's determined to govern as if he didn't care about winning a second term.