One hint on U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie’s political ideology comes from his 1995 campaign for the State Assembly, when he attacked two other candidates, Anthony Bucco and Michael Patrick Carroll, for supporting a repeal of the ban on assault weapons. A reader sent PolitickerNJ.com a copy of the mailer from that campaign after Matt Friedman’s story on conservatives wanting to know where the federal prosecutor stands on some state issues.

Christie's position won't hurt him as a general election candidate in a state where polls over the last decade have constistently demonstrated support for an assault weapons ban.  His exposure is in the GOP primary against former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, a staunch advocate of the Second Amendment.

Christie was serving as a Morris County Freeholder in ’95 when he sought an Assembly seat. One incumbent, Arthur Albohn, was retiring, and the other, Bucco, had won a special election convention after Rodney Frelinghuysen went to Congress. Christie and his running mate, Rick Merkt, lost the Republican primary to Bucco and Carroll. (Merkt went to the Assembly two years later when Bucco ran for State Senator.)