They were ready for a recount, not a transition.
David Samson and Jeff Chiesa arrived at Chris Christie’s Election Night headquarters on Nov. 3 with their attache cases filled with legal briefs, prepared for every possible scenario that could send the neck-and-neck governor’s race to court.
Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerDavid Samon and Jeff Chiesa at Gov.-elect Chris Christie's transition office in Trenton on Dec. 8.
When Christie won going away, his top attorneys got an entirely different challenge: Build a government almost from scratch.
"I didn’t know if I was going to have to go to Staples and get pads and pencils and seat cushions and computers," Chiesa said.
Six weeks later, the legal briefs have been replaced with piles of resumes and drafts of policy plans. But Samson and Chiesa remain in charge — and just as intense — as Christie shifts from surviving a ferocious campaign to running a fiscally strapped state. After their slow start, the transition team this week unveiled two marquee cabinet nominations while fighting a backstage war over nominations by Gov. Jon Corzine. A month remains until Christie’s inauguration.
"Every day you miss is one day you can’t get back," Samson said during a lengthy interview last week in the spartan transition headquarters down the block from the Statehouse. "The intention is, across the board, to get out of the gate quickly."
Unlike Christie, many past governors — even those in unpredictable elections — started substantive transition work well before the victory party. Even Gov. Christie Whitman, who squeaked by Gov. Jim Florio in 1993, quietly wrote a transition plan that October.
"We could’ve torn it up afterwards, but fortunately we didn’t have to," said Hazel Gluck, a Republican lobbyist who ran Whitman’s transition. "This is tough stuff. Chris Christie has a hell of a job on his hands, and everyone he appoints is going to have a hell of a job on their hands."
In Samson and Chiesa, Christie plucked two confidantes from opposite ends of the Statehouse continuum. Samson, 70, a respected and even feared attorney, has served in various capacities under governors of both parties for the last 25 years. Chiesa, 44, a partner in Samson’s firm, is a Trenton rookie who worked alongside Christie in every job he has held for the last 18 years and can speak freely for the governor-elect.
"Balance is a good word here, no doubt," said Bill Palatucci, a Christie confidante who knows Samson and Chiesa well. "Some governors and chief executives funnel everything through one person, and Chris isn’t that way. But I think that works only when everyone’s comfortable enough to let their hair down in front of the boss."
Besides giving Christie unvarnished advice, Samson and Chiesa are vetting cabinet nominees and other key hires; mapping out a plan to put Christie’s platform in place; and interacting daily with the outgoing administration. Along with incoming chief of staff Rich Bagger, they are the enforcers in the nominations fight with Corzine.
Former Treasurer Richard Leone, who ran transitions for Corzine in 2005 and former Gov. Brendan Byrne in 1973, said the period is rough on the winners as well as the losers.
"People have a tendency to think they know everything, and have to learn the hard way early in the administration. You’ve also got to remember there’s only one governor at a time, and you don’t want to be drawn into every controversy," Leone said. "The outgoing administration has to have even more narrow goals. Your authority is dramatically altered by the election outcome."
After Christie is sworn in Jan. 19, Samson will still have his ear but plans to go back to Wolff & Samson, one of the state’s top law firms. One of his high-profile duties there came when Christie appointed him as one of five federal monitors of medical device companies, in a case that was a political lightning rod for Christie — though not Samson — during the campaign.
For Chiesa, the work will not end in January. He has been named chief counsel to the governor, a key role in dealing with the Legislature and one he is working to reconcile with his past as a federal prosecutor. Among other political corruption cases, Chiesa took the lead on the conviction of former Senate President John Lynch, a legendary Democratic powerbroker
"It couldn’t be any more different ... not carrying a subpoena in, but carrying a platform for the governor," Chiesa said. "My motivation is to make sure when he gets to Jan. 19, he’s in the absolute best position he can be, because I’m personally and professionally so invested in seeing him succeed."
Samson, who was Attorney General under Gov. James E. McGreevey, praised Chiesa’s "integrity" and said he will navigate the choppy political and policy waters ahead. As for himself, Samson said he is in a unique position to help Christie avoid stumbles of governors past.
"It’s not enough to just have good motives and some good ideas, because otherwise they just sit on a shelf and gather dust," Samson said. "It’s sort of like designing a plane and building the plane and then actually getting into it and flying it so it can take off."
By Claire Heininger and Josh Margolin/Statehouse Bureau
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