Where, for example, Christie once supported national education standards, he’s now against them. After backing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, now he’s opposed.

During early runs for state office in the early 1990s he supported abortion rights and wanted to preserve a ban on semiautomatic assault weapons. Now? He favors a variety of limits on abortion and boasts about making it easier for people in New Jersey to obtain gun permits.

“There’s no question that some of his positions have changed over the years,” said Richard Merkt, a former New Jersey lawmaker who was a Christie ally in the 1990s but has emerged as a critic, citing his “weather vane chracteristics.’’

Even his relationship with the current White House occupant has been recast: He now bashes President Obama as a “feckless weakling,” three years after he warmly embraced the president in New Jersey in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.