Christie against public option, won’t say if he’s conservative or moderate

Posted Oct 21, 2009, 3:35 PM PT by Jed Lewison • First broadcast: Oct 21, 2009

New Jersey Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie on CNN:

Transcript:

JOHN KING (CNN): Do you think governors, you want to be a governor, need the public option, or at least the state option of a public option in health insurance to provide competition to the insurance companies?

CHRIS CHRISTIE (GOP gubernatorial nominee in New Jersey): On health care, I do not favor a public option, I think that there are a lot of other things that we can do on health care reform and not have a public option, and so that’s not something that I would favor, nor do is it something that I think would be good for the State of New Jersey, for the Federal government to do.

WOLF BLITZER (CNN): Do you describe yourself, Mr. Christie, as a moderate or conservative Republican?

CHRISTIE: Listen, those kind of labels, quite frankly, mean very little here in the State of New Jersey. I’m a Republican. I’ve talked about wanting to have smaller government, lower taxes, and I’ll leave the labeling to the pundits.