Westfield, N.J. — As the top Republican in the state senate, Tom Kean Jr. is one of Chris Christie’s closet political allies. He is also a personal friend of the first-term governor, much like his father, Tom Kean Sr., a former Garden State governor. Earlier this week, Kean Sr. told me that he hopes Christie will jump into the GOP presidential primary. Kean Jr., in an interview, agrees with his father and urges Christie to consider a late entry — regardless of the governor’s insistence that he will not run.

“I think he absolutely has the ability,” Kean says, as we chat in his Union County office. Kean predicts that Christie’s “very smart” political team could quickly engineer a campaign, even if other contenders were initially ahead in fundraising and organization. “If he wanted to do it, he’d do it right — no ifs, ands, or buts.”

Indeed, in coming weeks, if “Chris thinks it’s right for him, it would be right for me,” Kean says, echoing many state (and national) Republicans. “Chris knows that he has the support if he wants to run. There is no question about that, from a Republican-party perspective. We’d be unified, if he chose to go down that path.”

Of course, Kean acknowledges that, at this point, with the governor publicly leaning against a run, his hopes for a Christie candidacy are almost quixotic. And he repeatedly notes that the final decision will be “intensely personal” and Christie’s alone. Still, he tells me that he and other New Jersey Republicans are asking him to reconsider. “This isn’t small stuff,” he says. “Whoever the next president is, they’re going to have an inbox that is extraordinarily full. What people are looking for is someone with the ability to be an executive — and Chris would be a great candidate.”