Toll money: McMahon to host Christie fundraiser

STAMFORD, CT - OCTOBER 22: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie campaigns with Republican Linda McMahon on October 22, 2012 in Stamford, Connecticut. McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (now known as WWE), is running in a tight senate race against Democratic Rep. Chris Murphy. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie campaigns with Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon on October 22, 2012 in Stamford, Connecticut. McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (now known as WWE), lost to Democratic Rep. Chris Murphy. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

If only the state of New Jersey was renaming rest areas, it seems Linda McMahon would be in the running.

Responsible for pumping in excess of $100 million into the Garden State’s economy earlier this year, when her family’s WWE empire staged WrestleMania 29 at MetLife Stadium, McMahon is hosting a big-ticket fundraiser for the re-election campaign of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Oct. 9 at her gated Greenwich compound, Hearst Connecticut Newspapers has learned.

In addition to McMahon, the former two-time Senate hopeful for whom Christie campaigned in 2012, the host committee includes presumptive GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley, former ambassador Charles Glazer, Anheuser-Busch scion Peter Orthwein and financier Leonard Tannenbaum. The suggested minimum donation is $3,800 per person.

Christie narrated the welcome montage at WrestleMania:

Despite a 28 point lead in an August Quinnipiac University poll over state Sen. Barbara Buono (D), Christie continues to fund-raise in earnest, fueling speculation that the beefy Republican will run for president in 2016.

Well-chronicled is Christie’s rivalry with Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy (D), with the two politicians sniping at each other over whose state is better positioned to recruit and retain residents and businesses.

At the Republican National Committee’s summer meeting in Boston last month, Christie signaled that he would be willing to stump for the eventual GOP nominee in Connecticut’s 2014 gubernatorial contest, reprising a role he played in 2010 when he campaigned for Foley against Malloy.

A cease-fire seems to be in effect between the two governors, however, with Malloy offering his assistance to Christie last week in the wake of fire that decimated a row of businesses along the boardwalk in Seaside Park that was also hit by Super Storm Sandy.

Neil Vigdor