Angela Delli Santi Posts

Lawyers for two key figures in a political payback scandal ensnaring Gov. Chris Christie's administration will go in court to try to persuade a judge not to force them to turn over text messages and other private communications to New Jersey legislators investigating the matter. Fired Christie staffer Bridget Kelly and two-time campaign manager Bill Stepien say complying with the subpoenas carries the risk of self-incrimination.

New Jersey Democrats will pool their resources by merging separate legislative investigations into allegations that Gov. Chris Christie's aides blocked traffic lanes near the George Washington Bridge to create backups in a nearby town to punish the Democratic mayor.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is feeling the heat. Prosecutors subpoenaed campaign records while investigating the George Washington Bridge closures that stranded thousands of Fort Lee, NJ, citizens in mind-numbing traffic for nearly a week.

Emails and text messages released Wednesday link a top aide to Gov. Chris Christie to traffic jams in a New Jersey town in September that appear to have been engineered as political payback against its mayor. About a month after the emails were exchanged, a Port Authority appointee ordered closed two of three traffic lanes connecting Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge between New Jersey and New York City, one of the world's busiest spans.

Gov. Chris Christie plans to sign a bill Monday barring licensed therapists from trying to turn gay teenagers straight, making New Jersey the second state to ban so-called conversion therapy, along with California. Christie said he believes people are born gay and that homosexuality is not a sin. That view is inconsistent with his Catholic faith, which teaches that homosexual acts are sins.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says he wants to hold a special election in October to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by Frank Lautenberg’s death on Monday.

Christie says he intends to appoint someone to fill the seat in the meantime, but he didn’t say who.

The special primary would be Aug. 13, with the special election held Oct. 16.

That schedule would ensure the Republican governor’s own re-electio

Republican Gov. Chris Christie has been asked to apologize for referring to the first black female leader of the state Assembly by race and gender, not by name, during a church-hosted meeting. Christie, who's white, told an audience Tuesday that an "African-American female speaker of the Assembly" is blocking a vote on a school voucher bill that would let children in failing districts attend classes elsewhere.

Democratic Speaker Sheila Oliver later said she was "appalled" that Christie injected race into the discussion on education. Oliver, who represents a district with some failing schools, has said she believes the state should make a larger investment in public education.

The flap comes at an inopportune time for Christie, who has been courting the black and Latino vote for his re-election bid in November.