Recognition that Cristie was going to win, unless an Act of God. He has strong centrist popularity which will force dems to have to work with him or face a potential voters backlash. The moderates do not care for ideologues of either left or right.

This country is sick to death of hardcore, unrelenting, intransigent "ideology".

would take to defeat Christie. Apparently the cost for media in the important markets is extremely expensive. Add to that how an attack on Christie would bring in more donations for him. You have to take your resources and use them wisely for maximum benefit. A lot of analysis was done (i've seen the quotes about the numbers and cost) and it was determined that the investment and likely outcome wasn't a beneficial use of resources. Also, Christie was popular for the hurricane response. That is hard to counter, plus attacking him while he is well liked by his constituents risks making you look bad and maybe subect to backlash.

A second thing. Christie supposedly has some baggage that would harm his chances of presidential election. Since he is the most likely candidate to win over Hillary or a generic Democrat, (though not necessarily his primary challengers) why not encourage his being the front runner if you know you can tank him in 16. Don't we want someone we know we can beat? Also, Christie really hasn't been recognized for his right wing views. People think he's a moderate and that needs to be changed. Perhaps the best way to accomplish that is through his reaction to legislation that will be put before him in the next couple of years. Even with the minimum wage issue, New Jersey residents didn't feel the pain of his decision because of the ballot initiative. and Christie didn't take the political hit he should have for his position. I hope the Democratic held house will put out some legislation that will force Christie to put his views on record. Also, not having unemployment increase after the increased minimum wage will prove how wrong he is about that issue.

I don't think the 50 state plan will work until we get campaign finance reform. Citizens United has reduced our ability to be competitive in certain races. As a result, we have to pick our battles. I'm happy with not battling Christie if it helped us win in Virginia.