“Christie‘s popularity among conservatives and others is a tribute to his image as a straight-talking guy taking on the No. 1 problem the nation and various states face,” said David A. Keene, a former chairman of the American Conservative Union.

“Does this make him a conservative? Not necessarily, but it makes him a realist who stands out as very different from most elected officials and, because of his willingness to stand up to entrenched interests in a quasi-liberal state, it makes him a man of courage and an enemy of the left on the primary issue of this decade.”…

“He’s very strong on fiscal issues,” said Jeff Frederick, a former Virginia GOP chairman. “In fact, I can’t think of someone with better fiscal conservative bona fides on the national scene right now.”

However, Mr. Frederick said that Mr. Christie “is very weak on the social issues and doesn’t seem too interested in at least getting along with the social conservatives, or at least not at this point.”