Romney Adviser: Chris Christie 'Undermined' GOP Message

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is persona non grata among those close to defeated GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney for his embrace of President Barack Obama during the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, an adviser to the former Massachusetts governor tells the National Review’s Robert Costa.

Christie was an early endorser of Romney and a top surrogate, giving the keynote speech at the Republican National Convention. However, in the waning days of the campaign he praised the president for his response to the devastating storm.

Costa, writing in his The Corner blog, said the adviser told him: “He went out of his way to embrace the president during the final week of the campaign. It wasn’t necessary and it hurt us. Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, and Chris Christie undermined the Republican message.”

“Turnout was the big problem, since we didn’t get all of McCain’s voters to the polls, but we really should have been talking more about Benghazi and Obamacare,” the adviser said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Those are major issues and Romney rarely mentioned them in the final days.”