Has Gov. Chris Christie done a good job managing the Bridgegate scandal?

Gov. Chris Christie
Governor's Office, Tim Larsen
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Supporters insist he has, and an internal investigation paid for by the governor cleared him completely, but two additional Bridgegate probes continue and fundamental questions remain.

"There's a sense that many people are kind of waiting, that they have a kind of wait-and-see attitude," said Dr. Brigid Harrison, professor of political science at Montclair State University. "There's no doubt the governor is constrained, both in his ability to make policy, but also to be the kind of politician that he was and wants to be."

She said most New Jerseyans want the governor to put all of his cards on the table.

"In many ways he has not done that, and so I think there is a bit of a jaundiced eye with which many people look at this administration and this governor," Harrison said.

According to Harrison, most people doubt there is a smoking gun connecting the governor to the scandal, but they still want to know who was behind Bridgegate -- who knew what, when.

"The thing that he could have done would be to have brought those key players into his office before they were fired and gotten to the bottom of this," Harrison said, "and come to the public and said, 'Here's what happened and here's who was responsible, and they are no longer part of this administration.'"

Harrison said at one point in time, Christie may have had the power to obtain that information.

"He may in fact have that answer, but at this point now of course, there are so many lawyers involved that none of the players is going to indicate without some kind of prosecutorial immunity what they knew and when they knew it," she said.

 

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