Princeton , New Jersey ( CNN ) -- With all eyes focused on how the Democrats will do this November , the story about the divisions unfolding within the Republican Party have equally important long-term consequences for national politics . And now with the Tea Party movement as an additional force in the party , Republican leaders are struggling to contain tensions between right-wing activists and fiscal conservatives . In recent months , these tensions have been growing because new faces have emerged within the Republican Party that do n't fit neatly within the Tea Party fold . One of the candidates who has received the most buzz in Republican circles is New Jersey Gov . Chris Christie , dubbed `` Gov . Wrecking Ball '' by one columnist . How Christie fares in the coming year will be a critical test to gauging where the GOP might be in 2012 . The blunt and humorous Republican who replaced Democratic Gov . Jon Corzine has been making a name for himself by taking on New Jersey 's fiscal mess . Christie , a former U.S. attorney general who looks and sounds like the kind of guy you would sit next to at a New York Jets game , has focused all of his energy on reducing the budget and limiting property tax increases . He has been willing to challenge powerful interest groups like the teachers ' unions , and he did n't budge when citizen protesters took to the streets and railed against the impact of his budget . Christie also instituted reforms to the pensions of government workers . He has received some grudging support from Democrats and has persuaded the state legislature to go along with many controversial proposals , primarily because most experts acknowledge tough steps are needed to avoid having New Jersey become another California . The first test for Christie will be the political response when New Jersey residents see the impact of the budget cuts . Historically , at the national level , Republicans have often backed off from tough talk about spending reduction when programs proved to be more popular than conservatives expected . This is what happened when President Ronald Reagan was forced to back off Social Security cuts in 1981-1982 and the Republican Congress stepped away from Medicare cuts in 1995-1996 . In New Jersey , it is one thing for voters to hear tough talk on controlling spending coming out of Trenton , but quite another to see your child 's school program shut down . Now that congressional Democrats are on the verge of passing legislation to provide aid to the states in these areas of government , the contrast will be even sharper . There are also many questions about whether Christie 's actions will really be able to stop property taxes from rising . The second test has to do with whether Christie , assuming that he continues to be successful , can find a place at the national Republican Party table . In the era of the Tea Party , the Republican leadership has been moving toward the right on many nonfiscal issues . Last week , Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he favored the idea of reviewing the 14th Amendment -- originally passed to protect the citizenship rights of freed African-American slaves . Some Republicans , including South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham , want to make sure that citizenship rights are not granted to children who are born to illegal immigrants in the United States . Also , the ruling by a federal judge that California 's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional is sure to generate pressure on Republicans to take a tough stand on this issue . Following the 2008 election , the conservative commentator and former speechwriter for President George W. Bush , David Frum , a CNN contributor , had warned that Republicans needed to be cautious about doing things to win in 2010 that would harm them in 2012 and beyond . The threat is to radicalize the party by moving it so far off center that future Republican candidates would have trouble winning national office . As Frum wrote in his blog post with regard to health care reform , `` We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement , and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat . '' If Republicans want to rebuild their party , they must make room for more pragmatic , fiscally minded conservatives like Christie , who are generating excitement in famously blue states . If Christie can survive politically from the fallout of the budget cuts , he and other Republicans like him could cause significant trouble for Democrats by focusing on issues like taxes , deficits and spending that , at least on the campaign trail , have often had far more impact than the social issues that tend to excite the Republican Party 's base . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Zelizer .
Zelizer : New Jersey Gov . Christie is earning praise for tackling budget problems . He says Christie 's focus on cutting spending is a test for Christie 's . It runs counter to a national GOP trend of stressing issues such as birthright citizenship , he says . Zelizer : Chris Christie , others in GOP like him could give Republicans trouble in many states .