“I think Chris Christie has destroyed the Republican Party in New Jersey for a generation,” said Seton Hall political science professor Matt Hale, who said that the governor’s hard-right turn on policy to run for president also hurt New Jersey Republicans.

In the process, Christie may also have destroyed his own political currency.

Christie’s approval rating, once near 80 percent, now stands at a dismal 21, threatening to taint the already-disadvantaged Republicans who have just begun ramping up their campaign efforts to prepare for a post-Christie world.

The Bridgegate trial has merely highlighted the sinking-ship feeling that already existed, as Republican witnesses — including some who remain close to Christie — have contradicted or undermined the the governor’s account of the lead-up to the George Washington Bridge lane closings (as well as the findings of an $8 million dollar report commissioned by the Christie administration).