“I think Christie is certainly helping,” Seton Motley, founder and president of Less Government, told The Daily Caller.

“But Walker would have done this even if Christie hadn’t,” Motley added. “Same with Kasich.”…

Steven Lonnegan, who ran against Christie in the Republican primary for governor, is less optimistic about his former rival’s influence on a national trend.

“What Christie’s doing in New Jersey is not anything near what Scott Walker is doing,” Lonnegan told TheDC. “What Walker is doing is historic. New Jersey hasn’t seen anything remotely near this.”