Governor Christie press conference on GWB scandal 1-9-2014

Michael Drewniak, chief spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie, has kept an unusually low profile since his name surfaced in documents related to the George Washington Bridge scandal.

(Tony Kurdzuk)

He’s been Chris Christie’s front man and a trusted aide since the governor’s days as U.S. attorney.

Sometimes charming, often pugnacious, press secretary Michael Drewniak has provided daily sound bites about Christie’s positions and agenda. He’s worked to polish the governor’s image and smack down criticism, whether from newspaper editorial writers or elected officials.

But in the month since Drewniak’s name publicly surfaced in documents related to the George Washington Bridge scandal — including his reference to the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as a "piece of excrement" — the voice of the administration has fallen largely silent.

Drewniak, a former Star-Ledger reporter renowned among the Trenton press corps for his profanity-laced tirades about stories he deems unflattering or unfair to Christie, has kept the lowest of profiles, taking few press calls and offering little or no comment. His role as chief spokesman appears to have been turned over, at least temporarily, to Colin Reed, a colleague in the governor’s press office.

And in a move that may or may not reflect on Drewniak’s standing, Christie has rehired former spokesman Kevin Roberts, who left the press office last year to handle media inquiries for the governor’s re-election campaign.

Neither Reed nor Drewniak responded to requests for clarification about the status of the longtime aide, who’s in the crosshairs of Democratic lawmakers investigating the decision to limit local access to the bridge in September.

Drewniak is among 18 people known to have received subpoenas from a special legislative committee investigating the lane closures. Drewniak’s wife, Nicole Davidman, a fundraiser for the state Republican Party, also was served with a subpoena, though it remains unclear what lawmakers hope to learn from her.

"I’m not making any conjecture about who should survive with their job and who shouldn’t, but he and all the rest of these folks have a lot to answer for," said state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), co-chair of the joint legislative committee.

Gov. Chris Christie and press secretary Michael Drewniak have a conversation as the governor arrives in Sea Girt to view storm damage in the months after Hurricane Sandy.

Based on the thousands of pages of documents related to the scandal, Drewniak appears to have two problems.

The more immediate question is what he knew and when he knew it.

As early as Sept. 17, when reporters began questioning whether the lane closures were some form of political retribution against the mayor of Fort Lee, the Port Authority officials who carried the plan out — David Wildstein and Bill Baroni — began worrying that the cover story of a traffic study was falling apart.

"Jesus," Baroni wrote in a text message to Wildstein. "Call Drewniak."

It’s not clear that Wildstein called Drewniak that day, but the spokesman, who is friendly with Wildstein, did meet him for dinner two days before the Port Authority official resigned from the bistate agency.

"Thanks again for your sound advice last night," Wildstein wrote to Drewniak on Dec. 5. "I always appreciate your friendship."

"Same to you, David," Drewniak replied. "And thanks for a great dinner."

That same day, Drewniak sent Wildstein an advance copy of a positive statement that would be issued by the governor’s office upon Wildstein’s resignation Dec. 6.

In this file photo, Michal Drewniak, then a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, watches over the press during a briefing.

"He didn’t ask Mr. Wildstein what this was all about when they had dinner?" Weinberg asked, her tone incredulous. "What went on here?"

Drewniak’s other problem is the salty language and dismissive tone in his emails with Wildstein.

In addition to referring to the Port Authority’s executive director, Patrick Foye, as a "piece of excrement," the spokesman called a Star-Ledger reporter covering the controversy a “(expletive) mutt” after learning that, during an off-the-record phone interview with Wildstein on an unrelated matter, the reporter placed his phone on speaker without informing Wildstein an editor was in the room and listening in.

In a separate instance, the papers show, Drewniak said of a Star-Ledger editorial writer: “(Expletive) him and the S-L.”

State Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex), a former governor, said he would have fired his spokeswoman on the spot had she engaged in similar name-calling.

"I’ve never seen a press secretary with his desire to get personal and nasty," Codey said. "It’s kind of shocking."

Happier times: Gov. Chris Christie shares a laugh with spokesman Michael Drewniak following a press interview in the governor's office in January 2013.

Codey had his own run-in with Drewniak last April, a time when he and Christie were feuding about judicial appointments. In an interview with The Star-Ledger, Drewniak called Codey a "master obstructionist and partisan manipulator," and he accused the senator of blocking an appointment "to remain relevant."

"Real nice to say about a former governor," Codey said last week.

Drewniak’s relationship with members of the media could be equally volatile. Reporters who currently cover Christie or who have since left the Trenton press corps describe him as personable and friendly off the job and fiercely partisan on the job, prone to sending emails that contain the phrase "What the (expletive)?"

Politico reporter Ginger Gibson, who covered the Christie administration in 2011 for The Star Ledger, said she frequently received angry calls from the spokesman.

"He is probably one of the most combative and aggressive press secretaries I’ve ever encountered," said Gibson, who covered the presidential campaigns of Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney and who now writes about Congress for Politico.

"I’m sort of an aggressive reporter, and I don’t know if I provoked more or less than other reporters did, but I did often have these combative exchanges with him, and in reading the (bridge-related) emails, none of it surprises me," she said.

Drewniak spent 12 years at The Star-Ledger, first covering local news and later working in the Trenton bureau, where he wrote about the Department of Corrections, law enforcement and politics.

He left the newspaper in 1998 to work as a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. Christie retained him when he took over as U.S. attorney in 2002. Drewniak has since ascended to Christie’s inner circle, with the authority to speak for the governor without prior approval on all but the most sensitive matters.

Michael Drewniak, the governor's spokesman, speaks about the medical marijuana law outside the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee meeting in the State House annex.

Tall and trim with a shaved head, he accompanies Christie to his monthly radio show on New Jersey 101.5 and occasionally engages in banter with him. Christie joked during a recent show that he has nicknames for his staff. Drewniak, he said, was known as "fabulously bald."

If Drewniak has a little too much starch for some, it’s clear he’s fiercely loyal to the governor, and as a press secretary, that’s an asset, said Pete McDonough, who served as press secretary and director of communications under Gov. Christie Whitman.

"I get that people are angry, but when you’re the press secretary, and you answer the critics as forcefully as they’re lobbing attacks on the governor, then the critics can sometimes take that personally, and that’s unfair and unfortunate," McDonough said.

He called it a delicate and challenging position, thrust between reporters who "think it’s all about them" and politicians who "also think it’s all about them."

As for Drewniak’s predilection for certain four-letter words, former state Republican Party chairman Tom Wilson gives him a pass.

"Oh, please, this is New Jersey, and this is the way we talk to each other in the hallway at times," said Wilson, who served as spokesman under Gov. Donald DiFrancesco. "Often it’s language we wouldn’t use in front of our kids, but we’re passionate about things. He’s an excellent, excellent advocate for the administration. I think he’s getting a completely bum rap."

Staff writer Christopher Baxter contributed to this report.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Drewniak referred to the Port Authority's executive director as a "piece of crap." While Drewniak did call him a "piece of excrement," it was David Wildstein who referred to the executive director as a "piece of crap."



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