Christie says he backs Hobby Lobby ruling in Iowa visit

MARION, Iowa - A crowd of Iowans at a cafe here swooned over Chris Christie on his debut Iowa trip of the season today, saying his force-of-nature personality would be the perfect fit for the Oval Office.

The New Jersey governor was surrounded by a thick pack of Iowans and national and local reporters from the moment he arrived at M.J.'s Restaurant in Marion at about 3:20 p.m. CT for a casual meet-and-greet in the state that kicks off presidential voting.

The spotlight-attracting Christie, who is considered a potential 2016 presidential candidate, shook hands with just about everyone in the room, from waitresses to a baby girl whose mother was bonked by a cameraman's equipment as reporters jostled for the best video footage.

As Christie made his way through the crowd, one man asked him if he backs the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing Hobby Lobby to restrict its offering of contraception insurance coverage.

'Do I support the Supreme Court's decision in the Hobby Lobby case? I do,' Christie said, according to a video posted Thursday evening by Democratic super PAC American Bridge on its YouTube channel.

Thursday's Iowa travels confirmed Christie's sense that Iowans 'love' him, he said.

'They do,' he told reporters during a question-and-answer session in the parking lot of M.J.'s cafe. 'They do, and every time I come here to Iowa, I get a great sense of affection and respect from folks here.

'But that doesn't mean you're going to be universally loved, and if you want to be universally loved in this business, then you're the absolute poster boy for being ineffective. I don't care about being loved. I care about being respected. And in the end, if some people don't like me, then that's their business and that's their choice. It's a free country. But I am who I am and I'll be who I am and I think most people will appreciate that.'

A new NBC/Marist poll found that a third of GOP registered voters in Iowa have negative feelings about Christie.

'Only a third? Pretty good, man,' Christie said. 'That's not bad, I'll take it.'

Christie told reporters that he's still weighing whether or not to run for president, saying it's a deeply personal decision.

But some of the 200 Iowans who squeezed into M.J.'s Restaurant clearly hope he does run, including Karen Molacek, 55, of Cedar Rapids, who was the Linn County co-chair for presidential candidate Lamar Alexander in 1995 and 2000.

'I don't come off the sidelines unless it's the person I'm really excited with and Chris Christie's got me off the sidelines right now,' said Molacek, who is retired from a job in aerospace engineering.

Susan Brokaw, 77, arrived more than two hours ahead of Christie's scheduled 3 p.m. stop, just to make sure she didn't miss it. She browsed a nearby antique store, ate at a Mexican restaurant then claimed a table in M.J.'s an hour before his arrival.

'I prayed for Obama when he got elected, but he has done a lousy job,' said Brokaw, a retired Monticello resident.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie addressed the crowd during a fundraising event for Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad held at the Mississippi Valley Fairgounds in Davenport on Thursday, July 17, 2014.(Photo: Bill Neibergall, The Des Moines Register)

M.J.'s is a family restaurant in a central location in Marion that opened up earlier this year, but the cafe that previously occupied the space, Huntington's, attracted political candidates over the years, waitresses said.

Thursday evening Christie spoke at a fundraiser for Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad in Davenport.

Here's how Christie answered some questions from reporters and Iowans today:

Q: Are you conservative enough to win Iowa?

Christie: 'They don't go in there and say: 'Are you conservative enough or are you liberal enough? Are you moderate enough?' That's not what people say. They say: 'Do I trust him? Can I count on him to tell me the truth? Is he somebody who can actually be a competent steward of our country's future?' That's the way people judge, I think, who they're going to vote for for president, for governor or for any other job.'

Q: The only attack ads running in the Iowa governor's race are by the Republican Governors Association, against Democrat Jack Hatch. Is that going to continue?

Christie: 'We have an obligation to let the people of Iowa know about the record of Gov. Branstad's opponent. He's probably the only who thinks it's negative. If he's unhappy about his record, he should've done something about his record before he developed it.'

Q: A Gallup poll shows that immigration is the No. 1 issue for 17 percent of Americans, making it nearly equal with the 'dissatisfaction with the government.' What would you do about immigration?

Christie: 'Listen, first off, I'm not going to discuss a complicated issue like immigration in a parking lot here in Marion. ... But the reason you see the numbers up that way, I think primarily is because folks in the United States think the federal government has refused to address this issue in any meaningful way. And both parties are at fault for this.'

Q: Two likely White House candidates, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul are sniping at each other already. As a national party leader, what do you make of that?

Christie: 'Who knows? We'll see where it goes. I don't have a white-and-black striped shirt on to play referee. That's not my job. ... To the extent that other folks want to bicker about other things, that's their business. My job is to try to make our party advance.'

Q: Is there something you're learning from Iowa voters about whether to run for president?

Christie: 'No. There's not. Listen, the decision to seek the presidency or not is such a deeply personal one, that while it's wonderful to get as much encouragement as I got inside here and in other places in Iowa today, to consider running I've said the same thing to everybody: I'll decide at some point whether I'm going to or not, but that's a really personal decision.'

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