Bob Ingle - Chris Christie: The Inside Story of His Rise to Power

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For our parents and their parents, whose influence we never outgrow

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank our families and friends for putting up with us as we missed events and special occasions while crisscrossing the region and country researching this project, especially Lisa, Audrey, Connor, Ron, Barbara, Mildred, Monie, and Nick, who accepted delays and cancellations with love and generous understanding. And to our Gannett colleagues for their support, especially the Trenton bureau staff, John Schoonejongen, Jason Method, and Bob Jordan, and at the Asbury Park Press, Tom Donovan, Hollis Towns, and Gary Schoening. George Witte, our editor at St. Martins Press, believed in us from day one, as did the SMP team of professionals who took on this book with enthusiasm. Our agent, Roger Williams, was always at the ready for what needed doing, even when it meant showing up in front of the New Jersey State House dressed as Santa in a red convertible with antlers. Sandy McClure is a special friend and colleague who cheered us from the sidelines along with J.B., and checked in every week for progress reports and encouragement. Governor Chris Christie and his effervescent wife, Mary Pat, promised cooperation and delivered with no strings attached. We appreciate their openness and that of their extended family, close friends, and the governors administration. We are thankful for input from fellow journalists and the many best wishes from the public who read us in newspapers and on the Internet and follow us on radio and TV as we try to make sense of it all.

CONTENTS

C HAPTER O NE

C HAPTER T WO

C HAPTER T HREE

C HAPTER F OUR

C HAPTER F IVE

C HAPTER S IX

C HAPTER S EVEN

C HAPTER E IGHT

C HAPTER N INE

C HAPTER T EN

C HAPTER E LEVEN

C HAPTER T WELVE

C HAPTER T HIRTEEN

FOREWORD

I knew Chris Christie as a federal prosecutor of politicians I tracked for years as a New Jersey State House reporter. He took down Wayne Bryant, the veteran state senator from Camden County who had taxpayers outfit him with a red Lincoln Town Car; he jailed state senator John Lynch, the powerful political boss who ruled the states central section; and he imprisoned longtime Newark mayor Sharpe James, whose fans greeted him with cheers when he returned home from the lockup. Jail time for those three is something I never thought I would see.

Christie prosecuted the Garden State icons for using their positions to benefit themselves or their cronies, a long-standing tradition in New Jerseyone politicians practiced with impunity. The arrogant Bryant traded funding to the states medical university for a low-show university job. The quick-tempered Lynch took payoffs to help a mining company get state approvals. The flamboyant James helped his girlfriend to city-owned land, which she flipped for a profit.

When Christie, a fund-raiser for George W. Bush, was named U.S. attorney, the appointment was rightfully called political. Little was expected of the Morris County securities lawyer, a former county official with no experience in criminal law. But skeptics were quieted, at least for a bit, when Essex County executive Jim Treffinger, a Republican, was arrested, handcuffed, and paraded before the press during one of the early high-profile takedowns. Treffinger, who had promised to clean up government, instead hired his hairdresser for a no-show job, among other things.

Christie, declaring his disgust for those who believed they were beyond the reach of the law, made an unprecedented dent in New Jerseys culture of corruption, with the convictions or guilty pleas of more than 130 public officials.

Republicans were aching for him to run for governor long before he challenged wealthy Democratic incumbent governor Jon Corzine. In a liberal-leaning state with an electorate that has tolerated fiscally, but not socially, conservative statewide candidates, Christie convinced enough residents, overburdened with high taxes and the cost of corrupt government, that change was the only way to survive. Voters pulled the lever and sent him to arguably the most powerful governorship in the nation.

As governor, he challenged an education system backed by the states most powerful labor union, the New Jersey Education Association. He linked with some Democrats to reform a public employee benefit and pension system facing bankruptcy in part because former Democratic and Republican governors raided it.

His line-item veto of budget items and his blunt, straight talk on everything from taxes to Hurricane Irenewhen he told sun worshippers in Asbury Park to get the hell off the beachmade the news in every state.

At home, Senate president Steve Sweeney called the governor a bully, a punk, and a rotten prick after Christie cut Democratic favorites from the budget. Assembly speaker Sheila Oliver took the name-calling to a higher level when she labeled Christie mentally deranged, and a liar, in a spat over his contention that she sought his support to keep her Democratic leadership seat when a revolt was brewing.

Christie drew national attention for his ability to move ordinary people to action. With a series of town hall meetings, the governor convinced voters, who pass judgment on most school budgets, to reject more than half of the proposals in 2010 in a show of support for reining in spending. Christie tapped into taxpayer frustration, and perhaps taxpayer realization, that more spending does not always equal better education.

When Republicans across the land clamored to make Christie a presidential candidate in 2011 he decided to stay put. Clearly, he was tempted. But in the end, he likened such attention to smoke, saying that You can become intoxicated by that smoke, and you can wind up losing your way. Christies inner compass told him, at least in 2011, home is where he belonged. He made it public with customary humor: Whether you like it or not, youre stuck with me.

Here, readers get the chance to see beyond Chris Christies public persona. Coauthors Bob Ingle and Michael Symons, veteran award-winning journalists, offer an inside view of the hard-driving prosecutor turned governor, the qualities and the politics that brought him to where he is, the flaws and the circumstances that could hinder his reelection and elevation to the national stage.

This book offers an intimate view of the public and personal events in Christies life. You will:

Discover why leave nothing unsaid, is a driving force.

Find out which obsession caused big trouble during the first year of his marriage to wife Mary Pat.

Learn what poetry taught him.

Hear him challenge opponent Jon Corzine to man up and say Im fat.

See him accused in political ads of intervening on behalf of his brother with New Yorks U.S. attorney, who later received a no-bid contract from U.S. Attorney Christie.

Watch him grapple with the issue of a distant relative, a ranking member of the Genovese crime family, who attended family parties at his aunts home.

Be in the circle with Mary Pat and their four children just before he takes the stage to make his acceptance speech as a newly elected governor.