Chris Christie

Chris Christie in 2015.

Chris Christie (1962-?) is an American politician, former federal prosecutor, and member of the Republican Party, who served as the governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018, serving two 4-year terms. Christie is a close associate of Donald Trump and was first elected governor of NJ, defeating Democrat Jon Corzine, after campaigning on the contentious issue of discontinuing pensions for NJ teachers despite staunch opposition from teacher unions. Stopping awarding pensions to new teachers in NJ was popular overall with the public due to high state taxes in an economy where not even private sector workers usually receive pensions.

Beginning in 2014, Christie's governorship was marred by the so-called "Bridgegate" scandal whereby a Christie staff member had colluded in 2013 to block lanes of tolls plazas in Fort Lee, New Jersey. This put a complete stop to the flow of traffic from NJ into New York City for nearly four days in a row. The blockage was allegedly done to punish Fort Lee's mayor for being a political opponent. While there was never any legal action taken against Christie, the public suspected he had knowledge of the staffer's actions, and Christie's popularity began to wane.

Christie also provoked widespread ridicule, and became an internet meme, in 2017 as pictures emerged of him and his family sunning themselves on an empty NJ state beach that had been closed during the holiday weekend because of a state government shutdown. The incident became known informally as "Beachgate".

During Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, Chris Christie volunteered to spearhead Trump's presidential Transition Team and was able to do so only by raising funds for the team independently, since Trump himself refused to fund it despite a legal mandate to do so. The purpose of the transition team is to prescreen some or most of the 1200 of so appointees which an incoming president must appoint, subject to approval by the U.S. Senate, in the first three months after taking office. In the first chapter of his book "The Fifth Risk", non-fiction author Michael Lewis states that the output of Christie's transition team was deliberately ignored--and actually destroyed--after Trump took office and before the information could be used, because Jared Kushner (Trump's son-in-law) had a grudge against Christie because Christie's father had once convicted Kushner's father of tax evasion, retaliating against a federal witness, and lying to the Federal Election Commission.

Christie's full name is Christopher James Christie.