Messages link N.J. governor’s aide to traffic jams

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie addresses a gathering Tuesday in Union City, N.J. One of Christie’s top aides was subpoenaed to appear before an Assembly panel today.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie addresses a gathering Tuesday in Union City, N.J. One of Christie’s top aides was subpoenaed to appear before an Assembly panel today.

TRENTON, N.J. - A political furor surrounding Gov. Chris Christie intensified Wednesday with the release of emails and text messages that suggest one of his top aides deliberately created traffic jams in a New Jersey town in September to punish its mayor.

“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly wrote in August to David Wildstein, a top Christie appointee on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

“Got it,” Wildstein replied. A few weeks later, Wildstein closed two of three lanes connecting Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge, which runs between New Jersey and New York City.

The shutdown caused major backups in Fort Lee - the mayor of which had refused to endorse Christie for re-election last fall.

The messages, obtained by The Associated Press and other news organizations Wednesday during a state legislative investigation into the dirty-tricks allegations, do not directly implicate Christie in the lane closings.

“What I’ve seen today for the first time is unacceptable,” Christie said Wednesday in a statement. “I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge.”

“This type of behavior is unacceptable and I will not tolerate it because the people of New Jersey deserve better,” Christie said. “This behavior is not representative of me or my administration in any way, and people will be held responsible for their actions.”

Kelly had no immediate comment.

But Democrats said the messages contradict Christie’s assertions in December that the closings were not punitive and that his staff was not involved. They seized on the material as more evidence that the potential Republican candidate for president in2016 is a bully.

The messages “indicate what we’ve come to expect from Gov. Christie - when people oppose him, he exacts retribution. When people question him, he belittles and snidely jokes. And when anyone dares to look into his administration, he bullies and attacks,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz said.

Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich called it “appalling” that the traffic jams appeared to have been engineered.

“When it’s man-made and when it was done with venom and when it was done intentionally, it is, in my mind, the prime example of political pettiness,” he said. He said the gridlock put people in danger by holding up emergency vehicles, and he added that those responsible should resign.

While Sokolich is a Democrat, Christie sought bipartisan support during his re-election campaign to bolster his image as a pragmatic leader willing to work with his political opponents.

Democratic state Assemblyman John Wisniewski, who has been leading the investigation, said the material in the documents is “shocking” and “outrageous” and calls into question the honesty of the governor and his staff.

The traffic jams occurred between Sept. 9 and Sept. 13. Port Authority officials later said the closings were part of a traffic study. But no study has been produced.

As the controversy heated up over the past few weeks, Wildstein resigned, as did the Port Authority’s deputy executive director, Bill Baroni, another Christie appointee. Wildstein, a childhood friend of the governor, is scheduled to testify today before a state Assembly committee but is fighting the subpoena.

One of the released texts came from Sokolich, who pleaded on the morning of Sept. 10: “The bigger problem is getting kids to school. Help please. It’s maddening.”

Within minutes of Sokolich’s plea, an unidentified person commented in a text message: “Is it wrong that I am smiling?” Someone joked in another text that the youngsters referred to by Sokolich “are the children of Buono voters” - a reference to Christie’s Democratic opponent for governor, state Sen. Barbara Buono.

Most of the emails were sent using private accounts rather than government ones, which would be subject to open-records laws and therefore public.

Sokolich said that because of the traffic backup, emergency calls that average a two- or four-minute response time took up to 16 minutes.

“To me it’s appalling, and I got to tell you, somebody owes a lot of people a lot of apologies,” he said. “Somebody ought to contact families waiting two, three, four times the response times when their loved ones had chest pains. ” Information for this article was contributed by Katie Zezima, Steve Peoples and staff members of The Associated Press; and by Terrence Dopp and Elise Young of Bloomberg News.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 01/09/2014

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