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Gov. Chris Christie's allies at the Port Authority are accused of using their position to punish his enemies. Did they do the same to reward his friends?

(Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger )

Gov. Chris Christie is caught in a media glare over his handling of Bridgegate, his reputation for political vindictiveness suddenly revealed to the nation.

But the governor isn’t all about punishing his enemies. Let’s not forget that he’s spending our money to win friends, too.

An obvious example would be the television ads he starred in with his family at the height of his re-election campaign, paid for with federal Sandy relief dollars.

We welcome the federal investigation to find out more about this “tourism” campaign. But regardless of whether Christie’s administration paid millions more to a politically connected firm, rather than find itself a new “Stronger Than the Storm” celebrity face, there’s no question that it was shamelessly self-serving.

Then there’s the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. With its wide-ranging powers, billions of dollars and slim scrutiny, this bistate agency has become a tool not only to punish political enemies, but to reward the governor’s friends.

Christie stacked its ranks with dozens of his political cronies, and it’s hard to believe that its awards for projects are based on merit — especially now.

Not only did Christie allies use their Port Authority positions to punish the Fort Lee mayor who refused to endorse his re-election, as a trove of documents revealed, this agency has been used to award local officials friendly to the governor, The Star-Ledger's Ted Sherman reported yesterday.

The Democratic mayors of Harrison and Union City are both examples. Less than a year after the Port Authority approved a long-stalled, $256 million project to build a new PATH station in Harrison, the mayor and all his council members endorsed Christie for governor.

Coincidence? As Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) would say, it “strains credibility.”

Then there’s Brian Stack. Union City’s Democratic mayor threw his support behind the governor after Christie lobbied for the Port Authority to give $2.9 million for roadway improvements to his city, for upgrades leading to the Lincoln Tunnel.

And where were the Port Authority commissioners when all this was happening? Apparently asleep at the switch. Are they all oblivious patronage hacks?

The fact is, this is a bifurcated, competitive, secretive agency. It's like a "Game of Thrones" between New York and New Jersey officials, and Christie has played that to his full advantage. He's made an art of using Port Authority as his personal piggy bank, grabbing money that had been set aside for a new train tunnel to Manhattan to avoid raising the gas tax, and relying on tolls that can only be described as obscene to plug his budget holes.

This agency has become a pawn in his transactional politics. And now, his political career may pay for it.

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