New Jersey’s Republican Gov. Chris Christie was the featured speaker today at the GOP closed door lunch and talked about his efforts in New Jersey to balance the state budget without raising taxes.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who heads the Senate Republican campaign arm, called Christie’s tenure in New Jersey “inspirational for a lot of us, taking on tough issues like fiscal discipline, like pension overhaul and the sorts of things we are going to have to do here.”

Christie has insisted on a pay freeze for school teachers and a requirement that they contribute to money to their health care plan. Just last week, he angered Democrats by vetoing a homebuyer tax credit bill and a women’s health and family planning measure and  that would have cost the state $132 billion.

Cornyn said he is hoping the vulnerable Senate Democratic seats will be won by lawmakers who want to follow in Christie’s cost-cutting path.

The election, Cornyn said, “will hopefully bring us a serious group of members who are interested in tackling the big problems because they are not getting any better. They persist.”