She offered no apologies for her role in Bridgegate, but said she is ready to get her life back. The previous day had been filled with balloons, champagne, press interviews and socially-distant visits from friends to her front door offering their congratulations. She ended the evening with an after-midnight call to Baroni, her co-defendant, to rehash the day and talk about which of their old allies had or hadn't sent messages of congratulations. Kelly awoke Friday ready to start the next phase of her life. "I'll get my reputation back. And I will get my name back, " Kelly, 47, said with determination. "It's going to take a while. There's a lot of psychological and emotional damage that's been done to me. " The former deputy chief of staff to Christie said she has not worked since losing her government job in the Bridgegate scandal. She'd like to get back into public service. "I would like to go back to state government, " Kelly said. "I worked there for 20 years and I loved it. I loved public service and I would go back in a heartbeat. "
Bridget Anne Kelly, the former deputy chief of staff for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, reads a statement to reporters after a resentencing hearing. | Julio Cortez/ AP Photo Bridget Anne Kelly, a former aide to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie whose conviction in the Bridgegate scandal was overturned by the U. S. Supreme Court, is running for office. Kelly announced during a television appearance Monday that she is seeking the Republican nomination for Bergen County clerk. Kelly became well known for her role Bridgegate, when several local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge were closed over three days in September 2013. The lane closures in Fort Lee were an act of political retribution against the town's mayor, Mark Sokolich, a Democrat who refused to endorse Christie, a Republican, for reelection. It was Kelly who sent the now infamous email, "time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" that triggered the lane closures. "I did have a life before Bridgegate and the life before Bridgegate included 20 years of public service in state government, " Kelly said in an interview with POLITICO.
Kelly acknowledged to POLITICO that the "elephant in the room" during her campaign for county clerk will be Bridgegate, but said her goal is to get past that. "I don't want this campaign to be about Bridgegate. I don't want it to be about Chris Christie. I don't want it to be about the past seven years, " she said. "I want to talk about the efficiencies of the [county clerk's] office, what needs to be improved and what has to be improved. " But in an earlier interview on Fox 5's "Good Day New York, " Kelly said Bridgegate "is not something I'm afraid to talk about. I testified for four or five days in a federal trial. I wasn't afraid of the U. attorney's office. I'm not afraid of this. " Bergen County race: Kelly said she spoke with her four children — whom she says have been "through hell and back" — before deciding to run for office. All four, she said, were supportive of her decision. Kelly said she was approached by Bergen County Republican Chair Jack Zisa who asked her to run for county clerk.
The high court accepted Kelly's appeal just two weeks before she was due to begin serving her sentence. In a statement Thursday, Kelly said the court "gave me back my name and began to reverse the six-and-a-half-year nightmare that has become my life. " The 47-year-old mother of four said she wanted "nothing more than to hug my children knowing they will have their mom with them always. " An attorney for Baroni said that "Bill is heartened that the system ultimately worked, even as he recognizes how often it fails others who are less fortunate. " "At long last, Bill looks forward to moving on from this case and continuing his life of service, " the statement said. The four-day shutdown of all but one of the Fort Lee lanes accessing the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge caused massive traffic backups in and around the city. One of the most memorable aspects of the scandal was the email Kelly sent to David Wildstein, a Port Authority official, agreeing to the plan after Fort Lee's Democratic Mayor Mark Sokolich refused to endorse Christie's reelection.
"There is certainly nothing that has happened in the last number of months … that would make me think any differently about my ability to pursue that job or to perform in it, " Christie said on his monthly radio call-in program, TownSquare Media's "Ask the Governor. " Mastro said that Christie, 51, turned over his cellphone and allowed his email accounts to be searched. The Mastro-led team of lawyers interviewed more than 70 people and reviewed roughly 250, 000 documents. But Democrats have said the report is incomplete because it does not include interviews with people central to the plot, including Kelly, Wildstein, Stepien, Sokolich or former Port Authority appointee Bill Baroni. Assemblyman John Wisniewski and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, who are heading a joint probe into the administration, dismissed the report. "Lawyers hired by and paid by the Christie administration itself to investigate the governor's office who then say the governor and most of his office did nothing wrong will not be the final word on this matter, " they said in a statement.