WASHINGTON - President Obama and Gov. Chris Christie, Republican of New Jersey, will reprise their pre-election tour of the coastal areas ravaged by Hurricane Sandy on Tuesday, a White House official said Friday morning.
“The president will speak about the importance of reigniting and expanding economic opportunity for middle-class families who were hard hit by the storm, and meet with businesses and homeowners who have benefited from the recovery efforts,†said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the trip has not been officially announced.
Just days before the 2012 presidential election in November, Mr. Christie and Mr. Obama, a Democrat, produced dramatic, bipartisan images of cooperation as they walked together along New Jersey's coast, surveying the damage and talking to displaced residents.
Mr. Christie was criticized at the time for his effusive praise of Mr. Obama by some Republicans who feared it would give the president a last-minute boost in his re-election campaign over Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts.
But Mr. Christie, who has at times been an outspoken critic of the president, waved aside the talk, saying that responding to natural disasters requires leaders to put aside their differences. He heaped praise on Mr. Obama for responding quickly and forcefully to help New Jersey in the storm's aftermath.
“If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics, then you don't know me,†Mr. Christie told reporters in the immediate aftermath of the powerful storm.
A replay of the side-by-side imagery of the two men will no doubt rekindle some of the same criticism, especially for Mr. Christie, who faces re-election next year and could also be contemplating a bid for the presidency in 2016.
Mr. Christie has carefully honed his image as a tough-talking conservative whose blunt language appeals to many in his party. But New Jersey is also a heavily Democratic state that typically demands that its leaders find a way to work across the aisle. Being seen again with the president could help.
But the challenge for Mr. Christie is to stoke his bipartisan appeal without undermining his appeal to conservative voters who hold the key to the Republican presidential nomination, which will begin in earnest in less than three years.
In the past, Mr. Christie has done that by carefully picking his moments to deliver harsh assessment's of the president's performance.
At a rally in Richmond, Va., last fall, during the last few weeks of the presidential campaign, Mr. Christie lashed out at Mr. Obama, saying the president had never learned how to lead anything, having served as a community organizer, state legislator and one-term United States senator.
“He's like a man wandering around a dark room, hands up against the wall, clutching for the light switch of leadership, and he just can't find it,†Mr. Christie said at the rally just days before Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast.
That rhetoric was gone a few days later, replaced by praise for the president's effort.
