Christie: Not my time to run for president

Associated Press

TRENTON, N.J.

After a surge of new speculation, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declared with finality Tuesday that “now is not my time” to run for president, dashing the hopes of Republicans still searching for someone other than front-runners Mitt Romney and Rick Perry.

Christie had insisted for months that he wouldn’t run. But then came an intense weekend of reconsideration before he made a firm announcement at a news conference at the New Jersey Statehouse. His decision means the campaign now basically belongs to Romney and Perry, battling to take on President Barack Obama three months before the first GOP voting.

Though both men have extensive party support, Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, has failed to win over some skeptical conservatives, and Perry, the Texas governor, has been falling in opinion polls as quickly as he had risen.

Christie was the latest, perhaps last, hope of some establishment Republicans who already had been rejected by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan and others who declined to run for president in 2012.