Local and national Democrats pummel Christie on a daily basis over the issue. | AP Photos Democrats cross Christie over bridge

Democrats who have spent months agonizing over how to damage Chris Christie’s presidential prospects think they’ve finally found an entry point. It’s on a bridge between New Jersey and New York.

The Republican governor, who coasted to a double-digit reelection win in blue New Jersey in November, is being pummeled on a daily basis by local and national Democrats over the bizarre story of sudden lane closures earlier this year onto the George Washington Bridge, which caused massive traffic delays for days on the New Jersey side.


Democrats allege the lane closures were retribution against the mayor of Fort Lee, a Democrat who declined to endorse Christie against his underfunded rival in the governor’s race, Democrat Barbara Buono. Lanes in Fort Lee to the bridge were reduced from three to one for four days in September. The closures came ahead of the gubernatorial election at a time when Christie, who received crossover endorsements from a number of Democrats, was looking to maximize his support from the rival party.

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The noise surrounding the issue grew Monday to the federal level. West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller asked the U.S. secretary of Transportation to investigate the closures, and a longtime Christie critic, New Jersey state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, said she would like a congressional probe. And Assemblyman John Wisnieswki, a recent state Democratic Party chairman, subpeonaed any correspondence between Christie and Port Authority aides about the closures, to pinpoint what he knew and when.

Christie has denied any wrongdoing. But Democrats believe they can turn the lane closure issue and the heated allegations surrounding it into a commentary on Christie’s integrity and political character, finally striking a blow against a politician whose performance after Hurricane Sandy last year earned him widespread admiration as a pragmatic leader and eased his way back to the governor’s office. His critics, however, have derided him for years as having a temperament problem.

“I think he’s having trouble finding his footing following his reelection,” was the gleeful view of Democratic National Committee spokesman Michael Czin. In the past week, Democrats have composed a blistering 2-minute Web video about the issue. It’s made headlines on the national wires and on some cable news shows with a narrative that makes for easy understanding — traffic jams, political payback and one of the early potential GOP front-runners for 2016.

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The bridge is run by a patronage-laden bi-state agency called the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and connects northern Manhattan and the Garden State. The lane closures started Sept. 9, causing major headaches in Fort Lee.

Christie has said he had no knowledge at the time that the closures were happening, and that he doesn’t think anyone on his staff ordered them.

Christie Port Authority appointee David Wildstein, a friend of the governor from high school and the person who ordered the closures, resigned earlier this month. At a Friday press conference, Christie announced the resignation of another Port Authority appointee, Bill Baroni, who also was linked to the controversy. But Christie assured reporters that the resignation of Baroni, who testified that the closures were caused by a traffic study, wasn’t connected to the bridge issue. Christie also said he accepted the traffic study explanation. But the claims of such a study were denied by the executive director of the Port Authority, an appointee of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The closures also have been fodder for legislative hearings and subpoenas.

“After his resounding win, we’re not surprised that national Democrats are going to try to take aim and so are state Democrats, who are looking for a chance to stay relevant,” said one source close to Christie. “We know national groups are going to start looking for opportunity at every turn. That’s what happens when you do well and people start to focus on you.”

( PHOTOS: Chris Christie’s career)

Another source close to the governor noted that he had made his new top appointee at the agency a woman with a record as a corruption buster, insisting that reflects his governance more than a lane-closure scandal.

Whether the issue has staying power — or any resonance beyond New Jersey — remains to be seen. What’s more, the Port Authority has been a headache for governors in New York and New Jersey for decades, and is seen in both states as a something of a Wild West outpost, and it’s for exactly that reason that Christie can credibly argue right now that something happened that he was unaware of.

“Absolutely not,” Christie told reporters Friday when asked whether he had ordered the lanes closed. “… I don’t have any recollection of ever having met the mayor of Fort Lee in my four years. I may have at some Bergen County event or something. He was not somebody that was on my radar screen in any way — politically, professionally, or in any other way until these stories came out in the aftermath of the closing.”

But the resignations of the officials have helped keep the story alive, hitting political erogenous zones for Democrats looking to ill-define a governor whose image for straight talk and strong leadership has been hard to dent. After a year of doing little to thwart Christie, national Democrats are taking the approach that where there’s smoke, there might be fire.

“The nature and intensity of the coverage of the issue also reflects the fact that Christie is suddenly going to [be] forced into playing politics at a completely different level,” Democratic strategist Chris Lehane said. “Going from running for governor in New Jersey to being a top tier presidential candidate is akin to going from playing flag football to playing in the NFL.”

Democrats were frustrated that, after trying to define him as a bully in his first term — Christie is legendary for his town hall fights with constituents, including arguments with teachers, whose union leaders he’s tangled with repeatedly — the message dissolved after his performance during Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath.

“It goes to the heart of his potential liability … temperament is a real issue in presidential politics and in gubernatorial politics,” said Tad Devine, a Democratic strategist who’s worked on presidential campaigns. “It’s not fatal right now, but it’s a problem for him.”

What’s more, Democrats are banking on the idea that Christie’s image is potentially easier to shape among voters outside the Acela corridor who are just starting to get to know him. He was also slow to start pushing back on the scandal but seemed to try to address that himself on Friday.

“National Democrats will make an issue about everything about me, so get used to the new world everybody, you know?” said Christie, who’s held relatively few news conferences since his reelection last month, told reporters on Friday in reference to the scandal. “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.”

Christie, who has barely begun his new term as head of the Republican Governors Association, still has plenty of time to watch this wave of attacks recede — 2016 is still years away. And on Monday, he got a bit of help: Cuomo, the Democratic governor of New York, supported his fellow chief executive’s explanation that the lane closures were for a traffic study.

“I’m sure it is as Gov. Christie says,” Cuomo told reporters. Yet Cuomo, a potential presidential prospect himself, also has made clear that this is strictly a New Jersey issue, underscoring there’s a limit to the political lifeline he’ll throw Christie.

Despite how the issue plays out, Christie can expect that this is part of the new normal for him.

“For Christie, given his current standing, he will face such scrutiny for several years with both Democrats and fellow Republicans executing what is in effect a pincer action to define him,” Lehane said.