Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie dared New Jersey governor Jon Corzine to call him fat on Thursday, complaining that the Democratic incumbent continues to dance around the issue of his challenger's weight in the campaign.
Christie, a gay-marriage opponent and former federal prosecutor, leveled the challenge to Corzine in an interview with radio host Don Imus, according to CNN. He expressed annoyance with alleged attempts to invoke his weight in subtle ways.
"If you're going to do it, at least man up and say I'm fat," said Christie. "Afterwards [Corzine] wusses out and says, 'Oh no, no, I didn't mean that, I don't know what you're talking about.' Man up -- if you say I'm fat, let's go, let's talk about it," said Christie.
Talk about the weight issue stems from a Corzine ad last month showing Christie exiting a car in slow motion. The narrator says that the Republican "threw his weight around" to get government favors. Corzine recently acknowledged the ad used a poor choice of words.
Corzine and Christie remain locked in a close contest for governor leading up to Tuesday's election.
