The Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, N.J. told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that he is now convinced his borough was targeted by lane closures on the busy George Washington Bridge because he did not endorse New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) re-election bid.
“I didn’t sign up for this political insanity,” Mayor Mark Sokolich told the Journal.
“I’ve been punished not for something I’ve done, but for something I didn’t do,” he added. “This is the behavior of a bully in a schoolyard. It is the greatest example of political payback.”
TPM obtained documents Wednesday that showed one of Christie’s closest aides talked about the lane closures with one of the governor’s appointees to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the bridge. The documents show the Christie appointee requesting “radio silence” in response to Sokolich’s calls to Port Authority complaining about traffic jams that resulted from the lane closures.
Christie has repeatedly denied he had anything to do with the lane closures.
