Chris Christie has only been in the Republican presidential race for a day and already he has his first big endorsement. If you include the scandal-plagued, notoriously buffoonish governor of a small state without a particularly early primary as a big endorsement, that is. Yes, Maine Gov.
Paul LePage has endorsed Christie.
Suspicious minds may wonder if Christie greased the wheels for this endorsement in his role as head of the Republican Governors Association. The endorsement event was happening at Becky's Diner in Portland, and:
Christie made a campaign stop at that diner with Maine Gov. Paul LePage in May 2014, one of Christie's five visits to Maine as Republican Governors Association chairman to help LePage win re-election. The RGA also spent $5 million on the race.
But the money and support may equally have come out of a deep affinity between the two men. After all, it makes sense that a governor who
attacked a teachers union for endorsing marriage equality would endorse a governor who's made a career out of yelling at teachers in public. That a governor who threatened to
pull funding from a school if it hired his political opponent would endorse a governor whose aides
blocked traffic to punish a mayor for not endorsing him. Chris Christie and Paul LePage are pretty much two peas in a pod.