Something was missing the first time Chris Christie and Kim Guadagno appeared together before the state League of Municipalities convention eight years ago: A chair on the stage for Guadagno.

It was a “cute,” if a little awkward introduction to the massive lobbying group for Guadagno, a virtually unknown former sheriff who had just been elected the first lieutenant governor in state history. But she found a seat, she said, and by the next year was delivering the keynote speech.

“We started from scratch,” Guadagno said in a recent interview. “What do you call lieutenant governor? Or, what do you want your business cards to look like? What is the stationery going to look like? It was that fundamental.”

But, she said, “Everyone’s come a long way.”

And now everyone is leaving. In the transition of power from Christie to Democratic Gov.-elect Phil Murphy, nearly all the attention has been focused on the outgoing governor’s remaining moves as a still-powerful lame duck and his successor’s build-out of a new liberal order in Trenton.

Guadagno, meanwhile, has all but vanished from the public eye since losing to Murphy in November’s gubernatorial election. She has spoken to a handful of groups and stepped in as acting governor for a few days while Christie traveled out of state, but most of her time has been spent behind the scenes — shepherding permits, writing recommendations for front office staff and preparing her exit.

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Like Christie, Guadagno will be looking for a job once her term expires on Jan. 16. But unlike Christie, who has promised a quiet retreat to private life instead of seeking another elected office, Guadagno plans to stay active in politics — and would entertain another run for governor in 2021 if the circumstances fit.

“I’m not going to rule out running for anything,” Guadagno said. “It just depends, I think, on what my job is after Jan. 16. Quite frankly, I’m going to take some time off, get to know my husband again, get to see my kids again, before I start to make any big decisions on anything.”

Having run for elected office four times – for sheriff in 2007, on the ticket with Christie in 2009 and 2013, plus her failed gubernatorial run this year – Guadagno said she owes the state Republican Party a “great debt.” And with Murphy taking office with a Democratic Legislature, it is time for the party to rebuild, she said.

“I believe there is a bright future for the Republican Party in New Jersey (and) I hope to be a part of it,” she said. “I certainly believe we need to get more women involved in politics – on both sides of the aisle – but in the Republican Party, and that’s why I think I want to stay active in it, and can.”

Guadagno’s ascent to the state’s second in command was an unlikely one. In 2005, the year the lieutenant governor’s position was created, Guadagno was elected to the three-member borough commission in Monmouth Beach, a two-square-mile town on the Jersey Shore. A career state and federal prosecutor, Guadagno had elevated her profile somewhat by being elected Monmouth County sheriff, in 2007, but she and Christie were practically strangers to each other when he chose her over two better-known Republicans as his running mate in 2009, and the public generally had no clue who she was.

Guadagno, a native of Iowa, hadn’t sought statewide office and acknowledges she knew little about it when she arrived in Trenton. And as a former lawyer, teacher and sheriff, she had no experience in business and economic development when Christie charged her with cutting red tape and fostering economic growth after the election. But, she said, “you learn fast.”

When the Christie administration took over, the state was in the throes of the Great Recession with an unemployment rate of 9.8 percent and plummeting revenues. She helped launch the Partnership for Action, a private-public partnership, and the nonprofit Choose New Jersey, with a focus on keeping businesses in New Jersey and luring others to it. Those groups worked with the Economic Development Authority, whose $8 billion in tax breaks since Christie and Guadagno took office has been criticized as being too generous to big businesses and corporations with disputed economic effect.

The state’s recovery has lagged behind the nation’s, but it has recovered all the jobs lost in the recession and earlier this year hit a 16-year low in the unemployment rate, when it was 4.1 percent. The rate has increased to 5.1 percent, according to the latest jobs report. Murphy was critical during the gubernatorial campaign of Guadagno’s economic stewardship, and he has maintained a longtime pledge throughout the transition to create a “stronger and fairer” economy that focuses more heavily on the middle class.

Guadagno said she’s proud of her record, that “my numbers speak for themselves” and that she believes New Jersey has “turned the corner on a very tough economic time.” She credited that turnaround in part to Christie’s idea to market New Jersey’s “sweet spots,” and she rejects the critiques of the administration’s use of tax incentives.

The relationship between Christie and Guadagno has been a source of palace intrigue in Trenton for years. Christie dominated headlines from day one as the loud and controversial face of the administration while Guadagno spent most of her time traveling the state – she says she’s burned through “six or seven” sport-utility vehicles logging “hundreds of thousands of miles” – to meet with business owners and perform good-government functions, like attend a ribbon-cutting or speak at a group luncheon.

But a rumored distance between the two broke into public view during the George Washington Bridge lane-closure trial, when former aides described an “off again, on again” relationship and instances of Guadagno being “frozen out” by Christie. When Guadagno ran for governor, she opposed Christie on his controversial decision to raise the gasoline tax in favor for tax cuts elsewhere, and she publicly rebuked Donald Trump as a candidate for president, whom Christie had endorsed.

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Christie, who polls say is deeply unpopular with the public, mostly stayed on the sidelines during the governor’s race besides helping raise money for Guadagno’s candidacy. But he has said she ran a good campaign and was the best choice for governor this year. For this story, he praised Guadagno's work in the administration.

"Kim Guadagno did an outstanding job in establishing the position of Lieutenant Governor. Her leadership in business development, job growth and regulatory reduction met every expectation I had for her when I selected her as my running mate in 2009,” Christie said in a statement. “She has been a valued member of my administration and a good friend."

Beating Murphy would have elevated Guadagno’s place in New Jersey history: She would have been the second female governor and the first to secure a third Republican term since the modern Constitution was enacted, in 1947. But it was always an unlikely prospect that Guadagno would win against the forces of history, Murphy’s deep donor network and his large get-out-the-vote operation. She lost by 14 points.

When asked if she resents the circumstances surrounding her candidacy and whether she has any regrets, Guadagno scoffed.

“I think the timing was right for me. It was the end of my eight years. I can’t think of any better time,” she said. “I’ll go back to the same thing I’ve told people for years. If you get an opportunity to do something, then you take the shot. Otherwise you don’t complain about it. The question to my family was, in five years am I going to regret not taking a shot? And I knew I would, so I took the shot.”