In the end, Christie didn’t have a lot of options in the GOP field. He’s a blue state Republican governor, with one other blue state Republican governor option in the field in Romney. “He’s reasonably conservative, he’s electable, and endorsing him doesn’t necessarily mean you carry all of his baggage,” this New Jerseyan said.

A Christie endorsement of Rick Perry was, fairly or not, never an option, according to this figure. Perry’s reputation in recent weeks has been defined by his stumbling debate performances, his close association with a particularly religious expression of social conservatism, the endorsing pastor’s comments about Mormonism, the offensive old name of his family’s hunting property, etc. Christie is up for reelection in November 2013, and “there’s just no way” that a Republican governor of the Garden State could be reelected if he’s closely associated with the “overtones” of Perry’s brand of conservatism, he said.