By Luciana Lopez
LIVINGSTON, N.J. (Reuters) - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie launched an uphill run for the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday with his trademark brashness, offering up his blunt talk and willingness to tackle tough issues as the cure for Washington dysfunction.
Christie, once seen as a leading 2016 White House contender but now viewed as a long shot, said his dose of New Jersey straight talk could help span the partisan divide to solve difficult political problems.
"I mean what I say and I say what I mean, and that's what America needs right now," Christie told friends, family and supporters at the campaign launch at his old high school in suburban Livingston, New Jersey. "Truth and hard decisions today will lead to growth and opportunity tomorrow."
The 52-year-old, two-term governor criticized the "bickering" leaders of both parties, and derided what he called Democratic President Barack Obama's "hand-wringing and indecisiveness and weakness in the Oval Office."
"Both parties have failed our country," said Christie. "Both parties have led us to believe that in America, a country built on compromise, that somehow 'compromise' is a dirty word."
The campaign launch gave Christie a chance to rejuvenate his sagging opinion poll numbers and recast his battered image after last year's "Bridgegate" lane closure scandal.
Christie is the 14th Republican to vie for the nomination to be the party's candidate in the November 2016 election. He faces a difficult challenge regaining his former status near the top of the heap.
He has seen his standing in national polls in the Republican race dip to the low single digits. His approval ratings in his home state have fallen to new lows amid a series of credit downgrades and weak job growth.
Conservatives, a key force in the early Republican primaries, have been suspicious of his record of working at times with Democrats in Democratic-leaning New Jersey. They still resent his hug and warm words for Obama after superstorm Sandy in the final days of the 2012 presidential race.
'SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP'
As governor, Christie has cultivated an in-your-face image, once telling a heckler to "sit down and shut up" and getting into frequent shouting matches with New Jersey residents who challenge him.
Following the announcement, he headed to New Hampshire, where he will hold the first of what is expected to be a series of town hall sessions he hopes will help turn his reputation for plain speaking into an asset.
"You're going to get what I think whether you like it or not, or whether it makes you cringe every once in a while," Christie said during his launch rally, which did not feature a prepared text or a teleprompter.
He promised to wage a campaign that "will not worry about what is popular but what is right, because what is right is what will fix America."
He also took a verbal swing at Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, who was Obama's first secretary of state.
"After seven years of a weak and feckless foreign policy run by Barack Obama, we better not turn it over to his second mate, Hillary Clinton," he said.
New Jersey Democrats have challenged Christie's claims of bipartisanship, pointing to incidents like the "Bridgegate" scandal. In September 2013, aides orchestrated the closing of approach lanes for the George Washington Bridge connecting New Jersey and New York City, the busiest bridge in the country.
Critics said the closings were political retribution against a Democratic New Jersey mayor who turned down a request that he endorse Christie's re-election campaign.
Christie has disavowed knowledge of the closures.
A former ally of the governor pleaded guilty to federal charges in the scandal in May, and two others were indicted.
(Graphic on New Jersey under Governor Christie: http://link.reuters.com/xyq94w)