Bridgegate: Emails tie Christie’s staff to George Washington Bridge lane closures

Governor Chris Christie and Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Kelly. Photo via facebook

Emails and text messages published by NorthJersey.com  appear to implicate Governor Chris Christie’s Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Ann Kelly in the planning of the George Washington Bridge lane closures that disrupted traffic in Fort Lee for a week last September.  The documents support contentions by Democrats in the legislature and media reports that the lane closures were executed as political retribution against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for failing to endorse Christie’s reelection.

NorthJersey.com’s extensive coverage can be found here.

Prior to today’s revelations, the Christie Administration’s official story was that the lane closures were order by Christie’s top appointees to the Port Authority of NY/NJ, David Wildstein and Bill Baroni, as a traffic study regarding the appropriateness of Fort Lee having three dedicated toll lanes to the George Washington Bridge.

The documents show that Christie’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, and the Governor’s chief spokesperson, Michael Drewniak, participated in conversations on how to respond to media inquiries about the lane closures.   Stepien was named Christie’s choice to replace Sam Raia as Chairman of the NJ GOP yesterday. The documents also indicate that Baroni was very concerned about how Christie’s staff evaluated his testimony before the Assembly Transportation Committee on the lane closures in November.

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Report: Rothman will challenge Pascrell in redrawn CD-9

The congressional redistricting commission charged with redrawing New Jersey’s district map to create 12 congressional districts instead of the previous 13 put conservative Republican Scott Garrett of Wantage and liberal Democrat Steve Rothman of Fair Lawn in the same district.  Based upon historical voting patterns, Garrett had a 4% edge in the new district.

But 54% of Rothman’s old district was given to Democrat Bill Pascrell, the former Mayor of Patterson who wants a little highway named after himself.

Rothman did the math over the weekend and decided he has a better chance of keeping his insider trading privileges if he runs against Pascrell in the Democratic primary than if he faces Garrett in the November general election, according to a report on NorthJersey.com

Rothman will move from Fair Lawn back to Englewood where he was once mayor.

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