“It’s a campaign mentality,” said one former Christie official, who, like many other people interviewed for this article, would speak only on the condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to be drawn into investigations. “There was a sense that, ‘We have to totally manage the message because there might be a bigger stage for him.’ ”

Everything had to be vetted by the governor’s top lawyers in the counsel’s office or by his chief of staff: minor changes in bills or labor agreements, news releases from agencies and commissions.

Commissioners recalled that they were instructed by the front office how to rule. Legislators accustomed to asking questions directly of cabinet members or commissioners were told that they had to go through the governor’s office instead.

Mr. Christie himself tended to the smallest of details. He personally oversaw appointments to the State Board of Physical Therapy Examiners, legislative leaders said, and when he wanted to discuss something with lawmakers, he texted them himself. (He told one top legislator that he had learned from his experience as United States attorney not to email; texts were harder to trace.)

As a group, Mr. Christie’s aides were supremely confident about their ability to manage the Legislature for his longer-term political goals. “We’re playing 3-D chess while they’re playing checkers,” one adviser boasted last year after Mr. Christie called a special election to fill a United States Senate seat rather than have Cory A. Booker, a popular Democrat, be on the November ballot.

The State House team met regularly in the morning, perhaps for 20 minutes, for a quick overview of the day’s issues and what was being reported, with the governor sometimes joining in person or on the phone. Since his days as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, many people said, he preferred to use his cellphone or to meet, rather than to communicate by email or conference call.

For longer, more strategic meetings, the group decamped to Drumthwacket, the governor’s ceremonial house in nearby Princeton, where they would often be joined by Mr. Christie’s chief political strategists, Mike DuHaime and William J. Palatucci. Political meetings were often around the Christie family’s kitchen table in Mendham, where the governor’s younger brother, Todd, would join.