"In nine months, I am confident that we are going to bring a real difference to this state and we are going to change Trenton in some very serious ways," Christie told the crowd.
Christie, who was appointed U.S. attorney for New Jersey by President George W. Bush, built a reputation as a corruption-buster. Christie was widely viewed as inexperienced when he took the job but amassed an unbroken streak of more than 130 political corruption convictions.
Relying on that success to build a political following, Christie assured supporters he would make decisions to restore fiscal integrity to one of the most indebted states in the nation.
"I have the experience, and I have the determination and I have the will to make the tough decisions that are necessary to put our state on the right track, and do it now," Christie told the partisan crowd. "We will deliver results so we can restore your faith and your trust in the idea that government can really work."
The 46-year-old Mendham resident would have to defeat three Republican opponents in the June primary to run against Corzine in the November election. Corzine is unopposed in the Democratic primary.
Christie's two-day campaign rollout began on a day a new poll showed him slightly ahead of incumbent Democrat Gov. Jon Corzine by 6 percentage points, 44 to 38. The Quinnipiac University telephone survey of 1,173 registered voters was taken Jan. 29 through Feb. 2 and has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Christie, accompanied by his wife and four children, stopped at a diner in Hamilton (Mercer County) at lunchtime. There, he was greeted by about 20 union pickets from the Laborers International Union of North America, some of whom carried signs comparing the Republican to Bush.
He planned stops in Westville and Haddon Heights later Wednesday, and planned to pick up endorsements and attend a campaign rally on Thursday.