BridgeGate, Hoboken/Sandy Relief Funds Scandal May Cost Chris Christie His Chairmanship Of The GOP Governor's Association

The scandals are starting to mount for Chris Christie and they're taking their toll.

He might have survived BridgeGate, especially after he proved to be so adept at his press conference explaining away the particulars of the scandal and how he had nothing to do with the closure of traffic lanes to the GWB in Fort Lee.

But now that Hoboken mayor Dawn Zimmer has accused the Christie administration of shaking her down over a real estate project, withholding Sandy relief funds from her city unless she gave the governor what he wanted on the development, he has to battle a scandal war on two fronts.

This weekend, we already have ample evidence that the war is not going so well:

It was supposed to be Gov. Chris Christie’s comeback tour:

A weekend trip to Florida, where he would show the world he could still drum up top-dollar checks for Republican candidates across the country even as his administration faces a swirl of scandals, subpoenas and allegations of abuse of power.

But instead of highlighting his fundraising chops, Christie, in his new role as the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, spent the day besieged by new claims of political retribution — and shuttling quietly around the Sunshine State as far as possible from the public eye.

There were stops at a Tuscan-style country club in Orlando (he took a back entrance) and a seaside mansion in Palm Beach owned by one of the richest businessmen in the state (the RGA refused to give a time or address.)

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a fellow Republican, declined to hold any public events with New Jersey’s celebrity governor, a rarity in the middle of a re-election campaign.

"If this continues, he clearly can’t perform the functions of the chair, which is to go in and put the spotlight on GOP gubernatorial candidates on the ballot in November," said Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia. "If he’s going to go into a state to help … but then he becomes the issue and generates negative headlines, then he can’t serve as RGA chair, it’s obvious."

I think that's right - Christie has to put the Hoboken allegations behind him very, very soon or he's going to be out of the Republican Governor's Association chair gig.

I'm not sure how he puts it behind him - the Legislature is going to look into these allegations too, just as they're already investigating BridgeGate, which means more subpoenas, more news stories, more headlines that are going to keep Chris Christie's name tied to scandal.

I suppose another superstorm or something like that (God forbid!) could give him the opportunity to put these scandals off the front pages and out of people's minds.

But otherwise, I think he's in a lot of trouble - there's blood in the water and the sharks are circling and chomping at him.