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Carl Lewis is shown campaigning fro state Senate in this August 2011 file photo.

(Saed Hindash/The Star-Ledger)

TRENTON — Three years ago, a plan to make Carl Lewis a "youth fitness ambassador" for New Jersey was scrapped by Gov. Chris Christie's administration when the Olympic track and field star decided to run for state Senate as a Democrat, Lewis said today.

Now, with the George Washington Bridge scandal raging, the nine-time Olympic gold medalist says he sees a “strong parallel” between his own interaction with Christie and what happened in Fort Lee, and that Christie is an "insecure person."

"I felt like he was trying to intimidate me, absolutely. But I definitely didn't feel intimidated," Lewis, who recently moved to Houston, said in a phone interview.



Added Lewis: "It's interesting, everyone calling him a bully. I don't really see him as a bully. I see it more as someone who's insecure, and he's governor now and has got the power."

Here's the back story, which was reported at the time in both The Star-Ledger and the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 2010, Lewis began talks with Gov. Chris Christie's administration about becoming the state's "physical fitness ambassador" – a volunteer position that would have included a paid staff position for Lewis's aide, Chris Walker. The discussions had gone well, Lewis said, and by the end of the year he had a meeting with Christie to talk about it.

In April 2011, word got out that Lewis — who grew up in Willingboro — was considering a run for state Senate as a Democrat against Christie’s friend, state Sen. Dawn Addiego (R-Burlington). After Walker got concerned phone calls from a Christie aide, Lewis said he heard from Christie himself.

“I thought it was going just fine. And when I started to run, when he talked to me on the phone that night, he said ‘If you run, we’re going to have to cancel the program,’” Lewis said.

Despite the pressure from Christie, Lewis declared his candidacy for state Senate shortly after their conversation. But before his campaign began in earnest, it was mired in legal challenges. Republicans sued, claiming he hadn’t lived in New Jersey for the requisite four years, based partly on him casting a vote in California in 2009. And even though an administrative law judge first sided with Lewis, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno overturned the decision and kicked him off the ballot. After a tangled five-month losing battle in state and federal courts, Lewis dropped out, leaving Addiego to seek re-election unopposed.

At the time, Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak acknowledged the governor talked with Lewis but denied he attempted to dissuade him from running. “Absolutely, positively not. And anybody who says otherwise is lying," Drewniak told The Star-Ledger, though he did say Christie told Lewis "Well, I have to support my friend of 20 years." Referring to the fitness ambassador position, Drewniak said "I don't think Mr. Lewis is going to be running for office and doing this."

"He called me and asked me to get out of the race. I said I would stay in the race. Then he killed the program and used his secretary of state and attorney general's office to get me out of the race," Lewis said. "It's a pretty clear parallel."



Gov. Chris Christie's administration spent $78,000 worth of attorney's staff time in the effort to remove Lewis from the ballot, records showed.

Drewniak said today that Lewis was kicked off the ballot “by every court, state and federal, which he petitioned – on the basis of residency.”

“It was certainly a reasonable challenge by New Jersey’s secretary of state, and the state Supreme Court and federal courts agreed,” he said.

Lewis said he couldn’t say if Christie had anything to do with the George Washington Bridge scandal. But he said people are more likely to believe his story now.

"A lot of people said 'He didn't do that, he didn't say that.' I could have beat that drum forever and most people would not have believed it," Lewis said. "Now you're calling me to ask about it because it's a lot more plausible. Now it makes sense."



One Republican criticism of Lewis at the time was that he had only recently moved back to New Jersey after living here a long time. Asked if that criticism was borne out by his decision to move to Houston, where he used to live. Lewis said it's a "fair question."



"I ran for office because I saw some issues that I thought needed to be different. Running for office, I didn't clearly see the support for change… Let me change my environment and do something different," Lewis said.

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