text: TRENTON — The Republican field for the White House is growing larger by the day, and that could be a problem for Gov. Chris Christie. 
   
   With former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush jumping in last week, the formally declared Republican candidates for the White House stands at a dozen, including five former or current U.S. Senators and four current or former governors. There hasn't been a presidential field approaching this size since 1860, when Abraham Lincoln was elected. 
   
   Christie, who is expected to add his name to the big list in the coming weeks, is already part of a mad scramble of Republicans trying to win national attention and gain the favor of GOP voters responding to presidential polls. That's because Fox News Channel has decided that only the top 10 GOP candidates in the polls will be allowed into its televised Aug. 6 debate (CNN has the same rule for its mid-September debate, although it will hold another one for also-rans in the polls). 
   
   Christie's well-known rhetorical skills would be on full display in such a forum – but only if he makes the cut. Earlier this month, a Washington Post/ABC News poll illustrated just how slender the difference is between first and last in the crowded field: Only five percentage points divide Christie, in eighth place, from the first place candidates U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. And he was just four percentage points from 12th place. 
   
   "You're already seeing the party struggling with who gets invited (to the debate) and who doesn't," said Thomas F. Schaller, a professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the author of the new book "The Stronghold: How the How Republicans Captured Congress but Surrendered the White House." 
   
   Schaller said that to gain traction in the media and improve poll numbers, Christie and his rivals will likely start playing nastier faster than ever. 
   
   "The things that break though are the really big stories and really big gaffes," he said, "which really puts a premium on earned media and being really critical. ... Big attacks draw media attention." 
   
   Christie, who specializes in full-contact politics, is already employing a plan of attack. 
   
   On Friday, he once again took aim at 2016 contender Paul for recently leading the effort to let parts of the Patriot Act, which allowed U.S. officials to collect Americans' phone data, expire. 
   
   "What Paul has done has made us weaker and more vulnerable," Christie told an audience in Philadelphia. "It's disgraceful. It's made our country a more dangerous place." 
   
   On Thursday at an ersatz campaign stop in New Hampshire, Christie chided Bush for being "late to the party" with his newly announced economic plan aiming for 4 percent economic growth. 
   
   "This is one of these areas where I'm really flattered that Jeb Bush is copying me because I spoke three, four weeks ago in New Hampshire about a five-step plan to get to four percent growth," Christie said. "Then I heard Jeb announce on Monday that he's for four percent growth too — that's good. I welcome him to the party. He's a little bit late, but I welcome him." 
   
   The size of the field and its closely competitive rankings means a different approach to early campaigning is needed, experts say. 
   
   "As we move into the phase of the campaign where they are debating, the candidates who are shaping the discussion are going to get more (media) attention," said Steve Schmidt, who ran the day-to-day operations of Sen. John McCain's 2008 White House bid, "And so, at a personal level, candidates need to stake out territory, because it's the meat on the bones of why are you running: Do you just want the big house, plane and helicopter, or do you want to get something done for the country?" 
   
   Christie has followed this roadmap as well, proposing detailed plans for reforms to federal entitlement programs, immigration policy, taxes and education. In a normal race, offering up such specificity early on might cost a candidate some voters, but in such an unusually large field, Schmidt says Christie has a clear advantage by defining his positions. 
   
   "There's a tendency sometimes among candidates to take what I call a 'preventative defense' that's organized around the principle of not making mistakes or not putting information out there," Schmidt said. "I think it's not a winning strategy. As a candidate, you need to be an 'advocate for' and not a 'hedger against.' He's doing that, and he's also indicating a style of leadership which he'll articulate in the White House: 'I'm not going to be afraid to take on the tough problems, and I'm going to talk truthfully.'" 
   
   Getting enough attention to make the cut for the GOP debates could be complicated by the summer months, when TV audiences are about 10 percent less than in the winter months, according to Dounia Turrill, a senior vice-president at Nielsen, the TV ratings company. 
   
   And the large field of candidates makes it even tougher, experts say. 
   
   "Historically, we've never had so many people who are seriously running for the presidency and who have become part of the daily news cycle," said Joseph Ellis, author of the Pulitzer prize-winning presidential history, "Founding Brothers." 
   
   Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University, said as a result, "We're going to see more of them and less of them at the same time. There'll be more debates but at the same time, in terms of the major media outlets, each one will have less time and space to be heard." 
   
   In first primary state New Hampshire, where Christie has spent much of his late spring, lifelong Republican Leonore Moniz, 82, of Manchester, articulated a refrain common to scores of GOP voters interviewed by NJ Advance Media in the Granite State in recent weeks: "There's too many of them." 
   
   Finding a way to the front of the pack as soon as possible is especially important because top GOP strategists and presidential historians agree that the 2016 campaign could last longer than any in recent memory. 
   
   Thanks to the 2012 Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which allows unlimited amounts of cash to back presidential candidates, much of the field may stay in the race far longer than usual if hopefuls can find even a single billionaire to champion them. 
   
   "There's an excellent chance this all goes to May or June of next year," said Ellis. 
   
   If that happens, it could put in play a state that rarely has a say in presidential primaries: New Jersey, which holds its primary June 7 next year. 
   
   Richard Davis, who served as the campaign manager for Sen. John McCain's 2008 White House bid, said it could last even longer than that. 
   
   
   
   "The combination of big outside money, a condensed primary timetable and 15 candidates will result in a prolonged nominating process and could result in a brokered convention since no candidate will get to the 1,100 delegates needed," said Davis. 
   
   "In 2008, McCain wrapped up the nomination by March. In 2012 it took Romney to May. In 2016 it will go to the convention in July. Not only are there a lot more candidates but with the outside money widely distributed there is no incentive to winnow the field," he said. 
   
   Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @claudebrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. 
   
   ||||| Chris Christie: No teleprompter for launch 
   
   Gov. Chris Christie’s launch rally at his high school in New Jersey on Tuesday will include friends who remember his years as class president — but no teleprompter, in an effort to live up to Christie’s campaign slogan, “Telling it like it is.” 
   
   With the independent-minded voters of New Hampshire the key to his come-from-behind strategy, Christie will spend five straight days in the Granite State, beginning the evening of his announcement day. Plunging into the hand-to-hand campaigning that First Staters relish, he’ll hold at least three town halls and attend a Fourth of July celebration, plus various house and diner stops. 
   
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   Offering himself as a pragmatic, results-oriented conservative, Christie will signal his willingness to take on tough issues that others duck, notably entitlements. Another key part of Christie’s message will be his ability to win and govern in a blue state, where he did well in his reelection race with women, Hispanics and even Democrats. 
   
   A top adviser said the announcement tour is meant to showcase a Christie strength: “Communicating to bring people to his side — even people who don’t agree on every issue.” 
   
   Christie’s wife, Mary Pat, and the rest of his family, along with longtime supporters and friends, will jam the gym at Livingston High School, where he was president for three years, for the 11 a.m. bash. The invocation will be by Joe Carter, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, who has been a key voice for Christie in the African-American community. 
   
   The adviser said the audience “will see a lot of who he is as a person,” including the middle-class upbringing that shaped him: the influence of his late mother, his Irish father working at the Breyers ice cream plant in Newark to put himself through Rutgers, a grandmother who was a Sicilian immigrant and a single mother. 
   
   A preview video shows Christie at a town hall, saying that his loud candor has its roots in his loving, trusting family. 
   
   The adviser said Christie welcomes the discussion about the bridge closing and subsequent investigation at this point. 
   
   “To get past it, there has to be a little discussion,” the adviser said. “People can see now that everything he said was true. That doesn’t mean that the damage is undone. But people and donors are moving past it for the first time. For the most part, people will be looking to the future, not the past.” 
   
   After the announcement speech, Christie will fly to New Hampshire for a 6 p.m. Tuesday town hall in Sandown. On Wednesday, he has an endorsement announcement at Mary Ann’s Diner in Derry, then an afternoon house party in Bridgewater, followed by a town hall at the American Legion hall in Ashland, in Grafton County. 
   
   On Thursday, he has a town hall in Rochester, and he stops by the Pink Cadillac Diner. Then it’s on to a luncheon in Portsmouth, followed by an endorsement announcement and a house party. He’ll remain in New Hampshire on Friday, with events to be announced, and on Saturday will celebrate the Fourth of July with his new best friends in the Granite State. 
   
   Mike DuHaime, Christie’s longtime strategist, will advise the campaign from the outside. Close adviser Maria Comella has moved to his PAC. Samantha Smith, the PAC’s communications director, and James Garcia, the PAC’s political director, are expected to play similar roles from the campaign, which will be based in northern New Jersey. 
   
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target: – And then there were 14 ... on the GOP side only, a presidential field that NJ.com reports was last this big when Abraham Lincoln won in 1860. Chris Christie today threw his hat into the ring by way of an announcement made at Livingston High School, his alma mater and the town where "everything started ... for me." Politico reported that Christie's announcement would be made telepromter-free, as befitting his "Telling it like it is" campaign slogan. He kicked things off with stories of his roots—hard work, not much money—and what his mother told him: "God's given you so many gifts. If you just work hard enough, you can be anything." Ten standout lines from there: "Both parties have failed our country." "I wake up every morning knowing I have the opportunity to do something great. That's why this job is a great job, and why president of the United States is an even greater job." "America is tired of weakness in the Oval Office ... and that is why today I'm proud to announce my candidacy." "The lying and stealing has already happened. The horse is out of the barn. We've got to get it back in and you can only do it by force." "After seven years I heard the president say the other day that the world respects" America more "because of his leadership. This is confirmation that Obama lives in his own world, not ours." "We better not turn [this world] over to his second mate Hillary Clinton." "I am not running for president of the United States as a surrogate for being prom king of America. I mean what I say and I say what I mean and that's what America needs right now." "And unlike some people who will offer themselves for the presidency, you're not going to have to wonder if I can do it or not." He promised a campaign "without focus-group-tested answers. A campaign when I'm asked a question I'm going to give an answer to the question that's asked, not the answer my political consultants told me to give backstage." "We are going to tell it like it is today ... the truth will set us free, everybody."