Guy who tried to get Christie prosecuted for Bridgegate — I’m running for governor

A North Jersey community activist who filed a citizen’s complaint against Gov. Chris Christie alleging official misconduct in the Bridgegate scandal says he’s running for governor.

Bill Brennan of Wayne, a retired Teaneck firefighter, announced his plan to run in next year’s Democratic gubernatorial primary at a news conference Monday, WNBC and News 12 reported.

Brennan also said he is appealing a decision announced last Friday by a state Superior Court judge denying Brennan’s request for a special prosecutor to handle his official misconduct complaint, which a municipal court judge in Fort Lee referred to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office.

Phil Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive and former United States ambassador to Germany, is favored by many Democratic county chairman as the party’s nominee in 2017. Murphy has never held elected office, though he led a study of the state’s pension problems under then-Gov. Richard Codey.

Assemblyman John Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, is also seeking the nomination. He has been a lawmaker since 1996 and was the Democratic Party state chairman from 2011 to 2013. He is perhaps best known for the transportation committee investigation that discovered the emails exposing the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal, in which three people have pleaded or been found guilty.

Three other candidates have also declared as candidates for the Democratic nomination for governor or filed the needed paperwork with the state Election Law Enforcement Commission.

Jim Johnson of Montclair, who held senior positions in the U.S. Treasury Department under President Bill Clinton, declared his candidacy about a month ago. He was formerly was a federal prosecutor in New York and has headed the state’s Advisory Committee on Police Standards.

Two other Democrats have also filed paperwork to run: Monica Brinson of Hasbrouck Heights, a pharmaceutical sales representative for inVentiv Health, and Titus Pierce of Lawrenceville, an Iraq War veteran who has worked in the banking sector.

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