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Speculation around Gov. Chris Christie’s potential presidential run amped up again Monday when former Gov. Thomas H. Kean told a conservative magazine that Christie was thinking about jumping into the campaign.
Kean told the National Review that Christie was ‘very seriously’ looking at a presidential bid.
Yet an adviser close to Christie insisted that Christie is not planning to run, and a major national Republican fundraiser said he has not received any telephone calls from Christie or his people seeking support.
In the National Review article, Kean was quoted as saying – “It’s real. He’s giving it a lot of thought. I think the odds are a lot better now than they were a couple weeks ago.”
Kean has been a career-long adviser to Christie, ever since Christie joined his campaign as a teenager.
“More and more people are talking to him” – Kean told the National Review. “He’s getting appeals from major figures around the country.”
Christie has, of course, denied all year that he will run for president in 2012. He has joked with reporters and attempted to come up with creative ways to more firmly deny that he has any plans or hopes of running.
He has declared himself not ready to serve as president. As recently as last week, Christie talked about how he is not ready to wake up at 5:30 a.m. in Iowa and implied that his wife was against the idea.
Still, the appearance was with another oft mentioned presidential candidate, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, and both men expressed dissatisfaction so far with the Republican field, keeping speculation alive.
Today, Christie will be speaking at the Ronald Reagan Library in California and his speech “uses President Reagan’s transformative leadership to depict how the United States’ role and significance in the world is defined by who we are at home” – spokeswoman Maria Comella said in a statement.
Christie is hosting seven fundraisers around the country this week.

Chris Christie.

Gov. Chris Christie’s approval rating has increased dramatically since he signed the pension and health benefit overhaul for public workers and publicly led the state through Hurricane Irene.
A Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll released this morning shows 54 percent of New Jersey voters approve of Christie’s performance, while 36 percent disapprove. That’s up from a 44 percent even split in May.
The number is the highest approval rating Christie has gotten in a Fairleigh Dickinson poll, although his disapproval ratings were lower early in his term, when many many voters had not formed an opinion.
“The spring budget battles at every level – municipal, county, and state – hurt the governor” – said poll director Peter Woolley. “But he got a big win on pension and benefits reform in June, and weathered Hurricane Irene in August.”
Eighteen percent of voters rated Christie’s job performance excellent, 28 percent good, 29 percent ‘only fair’ and 24 percent poor.
The favorable poll numbers come just as speculation that Christie will run for president reaches a fever pitch, despite his repeated denials that he’s interested. The governor has a speech scheduled tonight at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
But Christie’s strong approvals aren’t likely to translate into Republicans winning control of the state Legislature, the poll found. With state legislative elections in November, 46 percent of voters said they’d prefer they remain under Democratic control, while 34 percent would prefer it shift to Republicans. While all 120 seats are up, there are only a few districts where either party can win. Democrats also went a long way towards ensuring they retain control when they prevailed in redrawing the legislative district map.
“Those good numbers for the governor do not make converts to his party in the legislative election” – said Woolley.

Kean is the first of Christie’s circle to go on record to say the governor is reconsidering his earlier denials of running. His comments also come on the eve of Christie’s speech tonight at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.
NJ.com users are discussing the governor’s potential run for president.
NJ.com user chelseaguy writes:
“I suspect that the Democrats are salivating over the prospect of putting President Obama against a man with such little self-control over his temper and his mouth. For all his failings, the President will dance rings around Mr. Christie in any debate (good thing Obama’s in such great shape, for that dance will have to be a marathon).
That is, if Mr. Christie doesn’t self-destruct long before then.
Governor, should you decide to betray us by throwing your hat into the ring, remember the words of Winston S. Churchill: ‘We are masters of the unspoken word, but slaves to those we let slip out.’”
NJ.com user NJisntBroke writes:
“Christie is leading people on. He won’t be running at all. He’s just playing head games to get them to donate money now. Then he’ll decide not to run, but he won’t give the money back.
At that point he will have a huge war chest for other goals like destroying those ‘horrible leeches,’ the teachers.”
NJ.com user awaynhappy writes:
“Technically, Christie has said all along he is not running. Everyone else is saying he’s running. Find me one quote – anywhere – where Christie said he was considering running.”