Christie puts speculation to rest

>>> and after weeks of speculation surrounding the future of the republican party , in new jersey, chris christie made it official he is, indeed, running for re-election.

>> i have a job to finish that i never anticipated six weeks ago having. and i just don't believe it would be right for me to leave now and i don't want to leave. i don't want to leave this job with this having happened to our state.

>> joining me now is politico's senior political reporter lois romano . i don't think there was doubt he was going to run for re-election, but look at his latest poll ratings since the storm since sandy he's up to 77% approval.

>> well -- not only that --

>> extraordinary in the latest polls.

>> killing cory booker who is looking at, you know, before the storm was looking at maybe running for governor and now leading cory booker by 30 points. he's riding the wave . and he's trying to position himself as an outlier after the republicans' terrible loss. he's bipartisan. he's leader. he's out there. so he's trying to take advantage. he's also using some of president obama 's lines, which i have a job to finish. you know, i have to finish this job. i can't go anywhere.

>> and also in the 2016 talk right now, jeb bush , in washington, meeting with the pollster for highly regarded pollster for mitt romney , and not dousing speculation that he would consider a presidential run.

>> no. he's encouraging speculation saying -- he's also having an education conference here. he's made some steps to raise his profile. but again, he's another possible candidate that's saying i'm a little bit of an outlier here. all through the campaign, maybe anticipating that romney was going to lose, he was saying, i'm out of step with the party on immigration. i'm the person that was embracing latinos. and, of course, you had governor christie embracing president obama before the election. so you have two guys that are saying, yeah, that's kind of an outdated party there. you know, start looking at me now.

>> in fact, jeb bush has a good reputation in florida, on education. he has worked really hard on it since leaving office? and with latinos and married to a latina. thank you very much.

>> thank you.