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Great minds may not think alike, but Jersey minds do, at least when it comes to President Trump.

After his rally last week in Wildwood, I wrote a column in which I said: Unlike prior Trump speeches in which he would go on stream-of-consciousness rants that were often hilarious, this time around he showed some message discipline.

Our former governor made the same point when he appeared as a panelist on ABC-TVs This Week with George Stephanopoulos Sunday morning.

I was at the rally that he had in New Jersey on Tuesday night and I'd never seen him stick so close to prompter in all the time I've known him, Chris Christie said.

Hes practical, practical, Christie argued. He wants to win.

Bob Auth agrees. Auth is a Republican assemblyman from Bergen County who declared his support for Trump early in the 2016 primaries, just after Christie dropped out. As a reward for his loyalty, Auth had a seat behind the dais for Trumps speech.

I was able to read the speech on the Teleprompter, he told me. He really stuck to his message. (Check this Politico article on the guy who works Trumps prompter.)

Auth is betting that message will resonate with Jersey voters this year. After Trumps speech, Auth declared his candidacy for the Congressional seat now held by Democrat Josh Gottheimer in the northernmost district in the state.

Auth said he expects the Democrats impeachment of Trump will work against them in Congressional races this year.

I think the way to win this is to remind the people in the Fifth District that the current member of the Congress voted to impeach the president, he said. Now we have to wonder if hes going to vote to impeach him again.

We do indeed. Some top Democrats are calling for The House to continue hearings into Trumps dealings with Ukraine even after the expected dismissal of the original impeachment charges.

Another early Trump supporter, state Sen. Joe Pennacchio of Morris County, said Trump has a big advantage in this cycle that he lacked in the last cycle: a united party behind him.

Last time. there were a lot of dropouts, Republicans who chose not to run, Pennacchio said. This time, Republican candidates have been gearing up. I cant overestimate the impact this impeachment has had on Republicans.

Pennacchio, who is co-chairing Trumps campaign in the state, met with Trump before the speech. He said he made a suggestion that Trump later employed.

I told him he could fill Giants stadium, he said. Actually, he could. He would give them the show of their lives.

I dont doubt that. Back in 2016, with virtually no organization, Trump could draw tens of thousands of people to a rally with just a tweet. Filling Metlife Stadium might take two or three tweets. But that would be the extent of the challenge.

Pennacchio compared Trumps rhetorical skills to those of Ronald Reagan another Republican who was not beloved by the party leaders until he got elected president.

Like Ronald Reagan, he talks like us, he said. Hes mad at the same things were mad at and he wins.

Reagan of course went on to win 49 states in his 1984 re-election effort. Trumps not likely to do anything like that. But he should win the states he won last time, Pennacchio predicted. He offered a quiz:

What state that he won last time do you think hes going to lose this time? Name one.

Id say that depends on which Democrat runs against him. And that depends on how you define Democrat. There are a couple of leading contenders for the Democratic nomination who have some rather shaky party credentials.

Senator Bernie Sanders has run his races in Vermont as an independent. Meanwhile former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg first ran for that office in 2001 as a Republican and later became an independent.

As Christie put it on that talk show, He was Republican when it was convenient, and was cuddled up to Rudy Giuliani.

Bloomberg then became an independent and is now running as a Democrat. Christie opined that because of that party-switching, I don't think there's any chance, any chance that Mike Bloomberg is the Democratic nominee.

On this point, Christie and I part company. If Sanders continues his recent success in the polls, there will be a Stop Bernie movement in the Democratic Party just as there was a Stop Trump movement in the GOP last time around.

If Sanders comes into the first ballot with the most delegates but not a majority then on the second ballot the so-called super-delegates get to vote. Those delegates might conclude that the best way to beat a wealthy New Yorker is to nominate a New Yorker whos a whole lot wealthier.

As Christie noted, Trump is practical. Will his opponents be?

Stay tuned.

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Chris Christie and Jersey Republicans like their chances after the impeachment effort | Mulshine - NJ.com