A Bridge to Scandal: Behind the Fort Lee Ruse
By N. R. KLEINFIELD JAN. 12, 2014
nytimes.com
By his own account, Mark Sokolich rarely asks people for anything. “When you ask,” he said, “you usually have to give.”
And that is how he likes to govern as the mayor of Fort Lee, N.J., a dot of a borough perched atop the Palisades in the shadow of the George Washington Bridge.
One day last spring, though, he was the person asked to give. A member of Gov. Chris Christie’s re-election campaign staff came calling to see if Mr. Sokolich, a Democrat, would endorse the governor, a Republican. There was scant doubt that Mr. Christie would win. But his ambition was to win big. He joked that he wanted to eclipse the landslide record held by his mentor, former Gov. Thomas H. Kean, who prevailed by 40 points in 1985. His advisers hoped to demonstrate such broad support that Mr. Christie would become his party’s logical presidential candidate in 2016. The campaign vigorously courted Democratic officials and notified reporters of fresh conquests.
<Read the rest here nytimes.com > one more juicy excerpt...
Pointing to bridge diagrams and rattling off statistics, Mr. Baroni told committee members that the lanes had been closed for the traffic study. Afterward, he was keen to know how Mr. Christie’s office graded his performance. “Trenton feedback?” he texted Mr. Wildstein.
“Good,” Mr. Wildstein texted back.
“Just good?” he replied, and cursed.
Mr. Wildstein comforted him that Ms. Kelly and another Christie aide were “VERY happy,” as was Mr. Christie’s chief counsel, Charles McKenna.
Launch media viewer
Governor Christie arriving in Fort Lee on Thursday to apologize to its mayor. Bryan Thomas for The New York Times |
