Christie, Bush test Foley’s allegiances

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, left, stumps for Connecticut gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley, right, at Curley's Diner in Stamford, Conn., on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014. File photo by Jason Rearick.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, left, stumps for Connecticut gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley, right, at Curley’s Diner in Stamford, Conn., on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014. File photo by Jason Rearick.

The bromance between Tom Foley and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is still going strong.

Don’t think that Jeb Bush, who prepped with Foley at the prestigious Phillips Academy Andover and could compete with Christie for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, didn’t take notice.

Foley, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2010 and 2014, welcomed Christie to his Greenwich home Friday night for a fundraiser for Christie’s leadership PAC that is a likely precursor to Christie running for president.

It’s a reversal of roles for Christie and Foley, who appeared together publicly five times in Connecticut during the 2014 governor’s race won by Democratic incumbent Dannel P. Malloy.

Multiple people close to Foley say that the former U.S. ambassador to Ireland under President George W. Bush is feeling considerable pressure to pick a side in the GOP presidential sweepstakes between Christie and Bush.

Foley, a private equity manager and reliable bundler of campaign cash for Republicans, did not respond to a request for comment.

Bush embarked on an exploratory bid for president last month with a fundraiser in Greenwich — his father’s hometown — that netted $500,000 for his political action committee, Right to Rise. Foley was not in attendance, according to several guests at the event.

For Foley’s sake, at least Mitt Romney isn’t running for president. The two Republicans go way back, with Romney interviewing Foley for a position at Bain Capital in Boston when Foley was a student at Harvard Business School. In 2010, Romney stumped for Foley in Connecticut.

 

Neil Vigdor