At one point during his 2009 Republican Primary run, movement conservative Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan confessed to PolitickerNJ.com that he didn’t know why he was bothering to go after the support of county committees obviously pre-arranged to back Lonegan’s rival, Chris Christie.

Lonegan would show up to an event, give a speech, and then hear a gavel drop ordaining Christie – the former U.S. Attorney – as the party nominee for governor.

The big question for Gov. Chris Christie as a presidential candidate is whether he would be able to offset with force of personality the issue-by-issue scrutiny of angry Republican voters insisting on a conservative litmus test.

His friends and allies here say Christie better than any other candidate running for president right now so powerfully embodies voter anger and presents such deep-impact contrast to President Barack Obama, that fine-point agreement on issues like gun control, immigration and climate control won’t matter to a sufficient number of GOP voters.

“He is straightforward without being crazy,” said Assembly Minority Conference Leader Jon Bramnick (R-21), Westfield.

The strategy worked in Christie’s 2009 gubernatorial primary. But there are significant differences between Christie’s 2009 statewide run and what he would confront now on a 2012 national presidential stage.

Here are Christie's observable campaign talents and the challenges he would confront in trying to replicate them nationally…

TRENTON - Former GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan said if state Sen. Mike Doherty (R-23) runs for the U.S. Senate, Doherty could depend on his support.

"If he runs he's got to get in the race soon," said Lonegan, New Jersey's executive director of Americans for Prosperity.

Explaining his absence from today's Doherty-U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX.) endorsement rally, the movement conservative leader said he has narrowed his presidential choices down to Paul and U.S. Rep. Michele Bahmann (R-MN.).

The recent report by Newsmax.com that Chris Christie is reconsidering entering the GOP presidential primary should not be surprising.  For months, political insiders have been urging the first term governor of New Jerseyto enter the race.

Although he claims some friends in Iowa, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) by appearances has turned into the GOP version of Joe Biden in New Jersey, where his street cred as a scrappy, blue collar Catholic neighbor translates into zero support early here among power players and key renegades. 

Certainly, the top-down dynamic in the state is different this time, and not just because it's a different party at Drumthwacket.

Sources say the political minders around Gov. Chris Christie have told lieutenants, county chairs, elected officials and others to keep out of prez politics - a reluctantly observed edict.

RUTHERFORD – State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-36), of Wood-Ridge, signed onto Republican legislation to repeal their enrollment in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) Cap & Trade Program today.

Speaking before a small crowd at a side street gas station in Bergen County, Sarlo stood with an unlikely cadre of right wing stalwarts at his side, one of whom doesn’t believe in manmade global warming – although Sarlo said his reasons are different.

A candidate for Assembly in the 40th legislative District says he welcomes a campaign finance complaint against him as his failure to file proper reports with the state agency that tracks them is an act of “civil disobedience.”

William Brennan, a Democrat who is challenging Republican incumbents Scott Rumana and David Russo, is facing a complaint from the Election Law Enforcement Commission that he failed to file his campaign finance reports from a 2009 run for municipal office in Wayne Township.

But the candidate, who has been pursuing a state ethics complaint against Rumana for nearly a year, said he intentionally did not file the reports after he learned of an ELEC decision that allowed Republican Steve Lonegan to receive matching state funds for his gubernatorial run.

Despite inconveniencing the GOP establishment during budget season, Assemblywoman Alison McHose (R-Franklin) will have establishment support next year, according to the Sussex GOP chair and her upper house district mate.

"We will all be running together," state Sen. Steve Oroho (R-Franklin) told PolitickerNJ.com, referring to himself, McHose, and her fellow District 24 Assemblyman Gary Chiusano.

Presiding over the classically conservative mountain man region of the state, Sussex GOP Chair Ailish Hambel agreed.

"We stick together up here," said Hambel. "We're not all made from the same mold."

McHose's week-long resistance to Gov. Chris Christie's budget forced her party to talk her back from Christie's bad side in time for her to record an aye vote earlier this year.

Hours after state lawmakers passed Gov. Chris Christie's first budget, several clear victors - and victims - emerged from the statehouse.  PolitickerNJ breaks down the Winners and Losers in this year's budget season.  As usual, we focused our attention on the political fallout from the budget. We'll leave the debate over financial winners and losers to you the taxpayers.

TRENTON - A stunned state Sen. Mike Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) reacted to comments from longtime movement conservative ally Steve Lonegan, who called Doherty's endorsement of Gov. Chris Christie's budget "disappointing."

"I still consider Steve Lonegan to be a dear friend of mine, but I'm rather surprised to hear these comments," said Doherty, who held out against portions of Christie's $29.4 billion budget until this weekend when he secured concessions.

The governor axed the business filing fee and amended the gift card bill so it does not negatively impact small businesses in exchange for Doherty agreeing to back the budget and attendant bills.

"I am hurt that Steve would consider me a traitor to the cause," said Doherty, who had just emerged from a caucus session in which the governor met personally with GOP senators.