. >>> all right, joining me now is nbc news correspondent kelley o'donnell who's live at the chris christie campaign headquarters in new jersey. i'm going to go out on a limb and say it's a fairly buoyant mood at the christie camp at this hour. >> there's a real chill in the air, the ocean is just off to my left, and off to my right, there's sort of ten areas, like the ball dropping down on new year's eve. we expect governor cristie to address the crowd here probably in the next couple of hours. i was on the campaign trail with him, when he did a barn storming bus tour, 46 stops in one week. he addressed a lot of the issues and one of the things that he was really shooting for tonight was not only to be re-elected, and he had been way ahead of the democrat barbara buono for a long time in polls, but to do something that republicans really needed him to do, and that is to get above 50%. we'll see how wide his margin is tonight. that's critical because it hasn't happened in new jersey to have a republican win with more than 50% of the vote since back in the '80s. if that happens, he can show