New Jersey's Chris Christie looks to send a message to GOP with his reelection campaign LIVINGSTON, N.J. - When Gov. Chris Christie's campaign bus made its first stop last week, in front of the Ritz diner, the event had the trappings of both a victory lap and a road test. The official victory lap can't come until Tuesday night, when Christie is expected to cruise to reelection in his race against Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono. If current trends hold, Christie could be the first Republican statewide candidate to win more than 50 percent of the vote since 1988. His percentage could be the highest for any gubernatorial candidate since 1985, which was long before New Jersey turned blue. The road test was for a possible campaign for president in 2016. Christie's gubernatorial reelection campaign is about much more than winning a second term to enhance his power in New Jersey. He and his advisers hope that the outcome will send a message to a divided Republican Party about how it can win in places where its presidential candidates have been losing. In one way, Christie is taking a page from the playbook of former president George W. Bush, who used his 1998 gubernatorial reelection campaign in Texas to make himself the favorite for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000. Like Bush, Christie is trying to win by the biggest possible margin and show that, despite his conservative positions, he can attract support from constituencies long tied to the Democrats. But the Republican Party that will pick its next presidential nominee in three years is far different from the one that nominated Bush. Christie should emerge from Tuesday's election as a top-tier candidate for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, but also as one fully stamped as a favorite of the establishment wing who has not been afraid to criticize hard-liners on the right. "I said this to the RNC last summer," Christie said aboard his bus later that day, referring to the Republican National Committee, "I'm in this to win, because if you don't win, you can't govern. If you can't govern, you can't move the country, the state, the city - whatever you're running for - in the direction it needs to be moved in. I think we've had too many people [in the Republican Party] who've become less interested in winning an election and more interested in winning an argument. Tuesday's gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia will highlight both strains of Republican conservatism, with Christie representing one approach and Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II - a tea party favorite and underdog in his race against Democratic businessman and fundraiser Terry McAuliffe - representing the other. A loss by a tea party favorite in a swing state and a victory by Christie in a Democratic stronghold would probably set the terms for the next phase of the debate within the Republican Party about the way forward. If Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) has become the symbol of the GOP's tea party wing, Christie is poised to become the anti-Cruz. Style vs. substance? Democrats nationally have thrown considerable resources into Virginia on behalf of McAuliffe. In contrast, the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) has done nothing to help Christie's opponent. "We expend resources where we think we can make a difference, and we haven't invested in New Jersey," said Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, chairman of the DGA.