American Politics Commons^™

Bully Or Dupe?: Governor Chris Christie’S Image Repair On The Bridge Lane Closure Scandal, William L. Benoit

Speaker & Gavel

In 2013, two lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge – the busiest in the nation – in Fort Lee, NJ, were closed. In January of 2014, it emerged that Christie’s Deputy Chief of Staff Kelley instigated this problem. Governor Christie was accused of retaliating against Fort Lee’s Mayor Mark Sokolich, who had not endorsed Christie’s re-election bid. Christie fired Kelley, held a press conference, and apologized to Sokolich and the people of Fort Lee. Christie’s primary strategies were mortification and corrective action, but he also used denial, differentiation, minimization, and defeasibility to deal with this situation. Minimization was interesting …