NEWARK - Gov. Chris Christie had not even been in office for a full two years and it would be more than a year later before the governor would publicly entertain the question about whether he planned to run for re-election.

But by late 2011, state employees, using personal email accounts, were already eyeing "Dem Targets" to woo for Christie's 2013 re-election bid, according to testimony Friday during the George Washington Bridge lane closures criminal trial.

A list, shared among staffers working in the administration's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, or IGA, had the names and details of elected officials.

Matt Mowers, a former IGA staffer, told jurors about the details of the list, lifting the curtain on the Christie administration's efforts to systematically curry favor with local leaders in exchange for support.

Each person on the list was given a number, which would designate that person's likelihood whether to back Christie in an election that was still years off.

"Make sure 'Dem Target List' is updated," Mowers wrote in December 2011. "This is the one that lists all our potential endorses and tracks what we've done."

The list kept track of the perks given to local elected officials, whether they were tickets to sporting events with prime seating in the "governor's box," lunch at the governor's mansion or a meeting with high-level Christie staffer, Mowers testified.

IGA also kept tabs on the amount of money local municipalities received from government entities, including the Port Authority.

No detail was left off the document.

If a municipality or city official received steel from the wreckage of the World Trade Center, it was marked on the IGA's target list.

But more than keeping track of the perks, IGA controlled whether they were doled out in the first place.

When Fort Lee received funding from the Port Authority for shuttle buses in its town, IGA employees -- not authority officials -- indicated in they were responsible for the perk.

"We approved this," Bill Stepien, Christie's one-time political guru who once headed the IGA, wrote Mowers in an email, referring to the shuttle buses.

Mowers courted Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, the man who prosecutors charge drew the ire of Port Authority officials when he didn't back the governor's re-election bid, to back Christie in 2013.

But Mowers, who currently works on Republican nominee Donald Trump's presidential campaign, was unsuccessful in getting Sokolich's endorsement, which he conveyed to Bridget Anne Kelly in August 2013.

Kelly, along with former Port Authority executive Bill Baroni, was indicted in May 2015 on nine counts of conspiracy and fraud, in connection with the deliberate shut down of local toll lanes at the bridge in September 2013. Prosecutors allege the operation was aimed at causing massive traffic jams in Fort Lee in an act of political retribution targeting Sokolich over his decision not to endorse Christie for re-election.

Mowers worked under Kelly in the IGA from January 2011 to April 2013. At that time, Mowers left IGA to take a role on Christie's re-election campaign.

After Christie's 2013 win, Mowers left New Jersey to work for the New Hampshire Republican Party, where he stayed until joining Christie's unsuccessful presidential bid.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or on Facebook. Follow NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL.