Chris Christie: GOP governors play offense in election final stretch

With nine days to go before Election Day, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie sounded positive Sunday about Republican chances of holding or winning key races for governor this year.

"I think everybody expected us to be a little bit on our heels," Christie said on Fox News Sunday, in his role as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. "It's now, quite to the contrary, we're on offense in more states than we're on defense."

Republicans are defending 22 governorships this year, compared with 14 for Democrats. As Christie noted, the GOP is battling in nine states that President Obama has won twice and are locked in tossups in states such as Florida and Wisconsin. Christie said there are 12 GOP governors or candidates who are within the margin of error in public opinion polling on their races — including Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who are deadlocked against their Democratic challengers.

He singled out gubernatorial hopefuls Charlie Baker in Massachusetts, Bruce Rauner in Illinois, Larry Hogan in Maryland and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder as Republicans to watch in the 2014 campaign's final stretch. "It's going to be a real battle," he said. "I think we're going to come through this very, very well," Christie said.

Christie also defended the RGA's support of Walker, following a report in The Weekly Standard that the New Jersey governor may be "undercutting" the Wisconsin governor because both men are potential 2016 presidential candidates. Christie said the RGA has already spent $6 million this election cycle to help Walker.

"That's just folks in the punditry who want to ... talk about backroom kind stuff that has no relationship to reality," Christie said. "I am a complete Scott Walker supporter, always have been."

Christie repeated that he will make a decision about his own 2016 plans sometime early next year.

This was Christie's first Sunday morning talk-show interview this year. He was in Iowa on Saturday to boost Gov. Terry Branstad in the state that hosts the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses, and will campaign for Scott in Florida on Sunday.