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Paterson Mayor Jose "Joey" Torres has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in a corruption case sparked by an I-Team investigation in 2016.  Torres will spend up to five years behind bars, resign as mayor and pay restitution to the city of Paterson as part of a plea deal with prosecutors over the alscheme to steal from taxpayers by ordering city workers to do construction on a relative's would-be beer business

Gov. Chris Christie, who has long avoided wading into the immigration debate, said Thursday in Mexico City that he won't lay out his position on immigration reform unless he decides to run for president. "Until that time I have no role in the immigration debate, except for how it may affect the individual citizens of New Jersey, which I'll deal with as governor," the New Jersey Republican told reporters. "But I won't have anything to say on immigration unless and until I become a candidate for president of the United States," he continued. "If that happens, then I will articulate...

Chris Christie is plunging into what amounts to a cross-country revival tour, looking to recover from a clumsy political scandal and reclaim his place as a promising Republican presidential prospect. In one recent week, it was on-the-ground politics in Tennessee and New Mexico. This week, after a campaign stop in Pennsylvania, the New Jersey governor returns to the late night comedy circuit with an appearance on NBC's "Tonight Show." Then he'll stop by Mitt Romney's Utah summit, a private event for donors and GOP establishment leaders, and the week after that he heads to Washington to court Christian conservatives at...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie doesn’t relish the idea of campaigning against Jeb Bush in 2016. In fact, a presidential primary tussle with the former Florida governor would be “stressful,” Christie acknowledged Tuesday. “You like to run against people that you don’t like, not run against people that you do like and respect, so of course it would be stressful,” Christie said on New Jersey radio station 101.5′s “Ask the Governor” program. “I am close with the Bush family … [Jeb] has been a wonderful friend to me, especially during [superstorm] Sandy and the aftermath,” he added. When asked about...

As head of the Republican Governors Association, Gov. Chris Christie is expected to be out of state fundraising quite a bit. But he did not expect the current storm clouds to follow him from New Jersey to Texas where he is today. While fundraising for the RGA in Dallas and Fort Worth, the Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa will be shadowing Christie. More interesting is who will not be present – both Texas Gov. Rick Perry and leading GOP gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott, the Dallas Morning News reports. “Governors come to our state regularly for a variety of reasons...

Chris Christie is coming to Texas to raise some money – and it’s not a bridge he wants to sell you. The embattled New Jersey governor is head of the Republican Governors Association, so his trip to Texas is part of a nationwide effort to raise money for fellow GOP governors as well as to show party leaders he’s still a viable political figure for the future. -snip- Likely GOP gubernatorial nominee Greg Abbott will not join Christie. An aide said Abbott will be in Houston as part of a statewide series of appearances on immigration. The RGA was a...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference next month, despite a snub from the group last year and the ongoing controversy over the George Washington Bridge closures. Christie has accepted an invitation to address CPAC, POLITICO confirmed Monday.

On a conference call with Gov. Chris Christie’s most loyal donors a few nights ago, his brother, Todd, pressed for last-minute cash to pay for the governor’s inauguration, a daylong fete ending on Ellis Island. Then the governor himself came on the line, trying to convince his listeners that he was moving beyond the George Washington Bridge scandal and getting back to work, according to two participants. The next day, state investigators sent 20 subpoenas to his inner circle and the inquiry widened. This was supposed to be a season of triumph and celebration for the governor of New Jersey...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) leads former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D) in a hypothetical 2016 matchup, according to a new poll out Tuesday. The survey, from Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, gives Christie 45 percent support among registered voters nationwide to Clinton’s 42 percent support. That result tracks closely with the outcome of a survey of Iowa voters out this week, which gave Christie a 5-point lead over Clinton. Clinton leads every other potential Republican presidential contender, but they all keep that lead to single digits, with Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush...

But as the controversy over lane closures at the George Washington Bridge continues to swirl, Democrats in Washington are pouncing on the Republican governor in the hope that they can stop his potential quest for the White House before it begins.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie complained in a phone call with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo that a Port Authority official has been wading too deeply into controversial and potentially politically explosive lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, according to a report Thursday. The issue involves bridge toll lanes in Fort Lee, N.J., that were cut from three to one in September, causing a massive traffic backups. Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey have accused Christie of ordering the closures to punish Fort Lee’s mayor, a Democrat, for not endorsing his reelection bid for governor. Christie’s campaign has denied the...

Under pressure from Democrats in the state, N.J. Gov. Chris Christie today accepted the resignation of his top staff appointee to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey after a controversy over whether several local lanes were shut down on the busy George Washington Bridge for political reasons. In the hastily arranged news conference this morning, Christie announced that Bill Baroni, the deputy executive director of the Port Authority, will be replaced by Deborah Gramiccioni, whom Christie called one of his “most trusted friends and advisers over the last 10 years.”.. The flap is over the mysterious closure...

With America’s mainstream media taking the week off for the Thanksgiving holiday, the nation’s lonely and underworked pollsters stepped up to feed the beast. -snip- Those two findings, more than everything else above, may point to why 2016 is Mr. Christie’s year — as does this last poll. Just 18 percent of Americans say they are at their “ideal weight.” More than half “would like” to lose some weight; just 25 are “seriously trying” — the highest gap in 11 years. And 36 percent would classify themselves as “overweight.” Good news for Mr. Christie, seriously overweight but “seriously trying” to...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is the rare politician who is both spontaneous and interactive with the media. There is no Obama-style idolatry by the media, but he does entertain them. -snip- Christie might not get a break from the media in the 2016 campaign, but he will earn a disproportionate share of the coverage simply because he is the front-runner and he is amusing. Given the right-wing media’s antipathy toward a popular governor with a record of accomplishment and an emphasis on bipartisanship, he may wind up getting more favorable treatment in the mainstream press than among the...

President of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist heaped praise upon Chris Christie on Wednesday, calling him a “strong voice for conservative governance” who has “moved mountains” in his state. In an interview with Katherine Timpf of Campus Reform, Norquist called Christie “one of the six or seven who could run as a successful governor for the Republican nomination.” -snip- Norquist called Christie a “fine voice for the Northeast Republicans,” and said we must “grade on a curve” for Republican governors who have had to manage divided governments as Christie has.

Gov. Chris Christie is pledging to stump in Republican governor’s races in at least seven states and direct money to competitive races as he assumes the chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association later in the week. -snip- The governor will take the helm of the RGA officially Thursday. He said he will stump in Texas, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Michigan and Arkansas to support Republican candidates next year, when there are 36 governors’ races. “My job is to be supportive of those 36 races, to make the strategic choices about where we should invest the most money to yield...

If the entire nation were one big New Jersey, Chris Christie would have the 2016 Republican presidential nomination in the bag....an NBC poll out Tuesday found that Christie was the preferred candidate of GOP voters in just one region, the Northeast. There, 57 percent of Republicans said they would support Christie in a GOP primary versus 22 percent who said they would not. However, pluralities of Republicans everywhere else said they would prefer a different candidate. Christie trailed a generic "other" GOPer in the Midwest (35/30 percent), the South (29/27 percent) and the West (40/22 percent.)

TAMPA, Fla. — What the heck happened to Chris Christie? Everyone eagerly anticipating his signature New Jersey-style smackdown on the first night of the Republican convention walked away scratching his head wondering who or what muted the famously uncontainable, confrontational, loud-mouthed governor. His speech was so tame and devoid of red meat, it could have been delivered by George H.W. Bush at a United Nations convention. Once it was clear how toothless a speech it would be, it became almost painful to watch him. It was like watching an episode of “Jersey Shore” with Snooki sober and fully dressed in...

GOP rivals begin dishing on Christie: So this is what happens the day after you win a 22-point re-election victory and after the national media anoint you as the GOP establishment front-runner for a presidential race that’s still three years (!!!) away: Potential Republican rivals begin taking not-so-subtle shots at you. That’s exactly what happened to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) yesterday. "Clearly [Christie] was able to speak to the hopes and aspirations of people within New Jersey,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told CNN. “That's important. We want to win everywhere and Gov. Christie has certainly shown he has...

Top Democratic officials launched a concerted offensive Wednesday to define New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in a negative light, believing that he has emerged from his reelection landslide as the Republican Party’s strongest potential presidential contender for 2016. Some Democratic strategists said the party made a mistake by not spending more money to attack Christie during the gubernatorial campaign, which might have suppressed his margin of victory and denied the Republican a sweeping mandate in a blue state. In the months to come, Democrats say, they plan to chip away at Christie’s moderate image and present him nationally as a...