Gov.-elect Christopher Christie has named former State Sen. Richard Bagger as his Chief of Staff and former Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Chiesa as his Chief Counsel.

Bill Stepien, who managed Christie's campaign to oust Gov. Jon Corzine, will serve as Deputy Chief of Staff, and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Dowd will be the Deputy Chief Counsel.

Bagger, 49, served as an Assemblyman from 1992 to 2002, and as a State Senator from 2002 to 2003.  He resigned to accept a promotion at Pfizer, a pharmaceutical company where he ran the worldwide public affairs division.  He spent four years as Chairman of the Assembly Appropriations Committee.   He is also a former Westfield mayor and councilman.

Chiesa, 45, was Christie's law partner at Dughi, Hewit & Palatucci and went to the U.S. Attorney's office together in 2002.  He served as Chief of the Public Protection Unit, as Counsel to the U.S. Attorney, and as Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney.  He prosecuted former Senate President John Lynch and Harry Parkin, who was Mercer County Executive Robert Prunetti's Chief of Staff.  Chiesa is now at Wolff and Samson, a North Jersey law firm and has been serving as Executive Director of Christie's transition team.

The 33-year-old Stepien held top posts on several national campaigns and for the Republican National Committee before returning to New Jersey to work for Christie.  He was the Field Director of the Bush/Cheney campaign in New Hampshire in 2004, and the Director of the Republican National Committee's 72-Hour Campaign in 2005 and 2006.  He has worked on several New Jersey statewide and legislative races, and managed Bill Baroni's campaign that unseated incumbent Gary Guear in 2003.

O'Dowd is the Securities & Healthcare Fraud Unit Chief at the U.S. Attorney's office and has tried several high profile cases.

In an email to supporters, Chris Christie Campaign Manager Bill Stepien struck an optimistic tone despite the Quinnipiac University poll from this morning showing his candidate trailing Gov. Jon Corzine by five points.

“The good news is that voters are paying attention: 2 of the 3 public polls released in the last 24 hours show Chris ahead!” said Stepien, referring to surveys from Rasmussen Reports and Public Policy Polling that both showed Christie with a four point lead.

But neither of those polls have the heft of Quinnipiac.  The campaign itself seized on Quinnipiac’s summer poll numbers, which showed Christie leading by double digits.  

Stepien did not discount today’s poll, but he did pick out one statistic that looked positive for Christie.  

“Chris's lead among the all-important Independent voters grew from 9 points to 15 points since their last poll,” he said.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie today released a full list of all contributions made by the Christie Family Foundation through last month and has called on Gov. Jon Corzine to do the same.

"Yesterday, Jon Corzine released just a part of his foundation's financial contributions, omitting the last 10 months," said Christie campaign manager Bill Stepien.  "Does the Governor think we wouldn't notice that he failed to disclose his election year contributions?

Stepien and Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains), the Republican State Chairman, says that Corzine didn't go far enough when he released contributions made by his charitable foundation through the end of 2008, and wants to know who got contributions this year.

Republicans are accusing Gov. Jon Corzine of playing election year politics by economic development statistics after a top aide e-mailed cabinet members asking them to demonstrate some creativity by identifying places where the administration created private sector jobs.

"Now we have proof of what we have suspected for a long time -- the Corzine Administration is politicizing official State business to distort the true state of the economy to the benefit his campaign," said Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains), the GOP State Chairman.

Webber says that e-mail, written by Corzine Deputy Chief of Staff Mark Matzen, follows "highly suspicious and wildly optimistic job-creation statistics produced in consecutive months by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development."  Matzen cited those numbers in his e-mail.

Webber wants Corzine's staff to "cease all political work" and says the governor must disclose correspondence and communications between Matzen and the fourteen department heads who received the e-mail.

PARSIPPANY, NJ - Today, Christie-Guadagno Campaign Manager Bill Stepien released the below statement following the release of campaign spending disclosures:   

Christopher Christie's campaign manager says that Gov. Jon Corzine has accused Gov. Jon Corzine of trying to hide his record as Governor by spending millions of his own money on negative campaign ads.

"Another election year, another campaign spending spree with his Wall Street millions for Governor Corzine as he tries to hide his failed record of high taxes, irresponsible spending and skyrocketing unemployment," said Bill Stepien. "Try as he might, all the money in the world isn't going to change the fact Jon Corzine told New Jerseyans that he will once again raise their taxes even higher if re-elected.  Jon Corzine's millions may buy a lot of negative television ads, but it can't buy our way out of having the highest tax burden in the country and the highest unemployment rate in 33 years."

Chris Christie's campaign says the key numbers in a new Quinnipiac poll are Gov. Jon Corzine's upside-down approval ratings, upside-down favorables, and his failure to break 40% as an incumbent who has spent millions of dollars on his campaign so far – not the six point narrowing of Christie’s lead.  

"Jon Corzine has spent millions of dollars on negative, nasty attack ads, yet 61% of New Jerseyans still believe Jon Corzine will raise their property taxes,” said Christie Campaign Manager Bill Stepien in a statement, referring to the percentage of likely voters who expect their property taxes to go up under Corzine (34% expected them to rise under Christie, versus 46% who expect them to stay the same.  

“Jon Corzine continues to reach into his deep pockets to scare voters and distract from his failed record, but over half of New Jerseyans don't approve of his job as governor and believe his policies have driven the state's economy into the ground.  Jon Corzine can spend as much of his Wall Street millions as he wants on negative attack ads, but Chris is the only candidate with an independent approach to bring real change to struggling New Jersey families."

Those negative ads have driven down Christie’s favorability ratings, according to the poll.  Voters are split down the middle on how they view Christie, with his favorable/unfavorable rating tied at 38% to 38%.  That’s down from 41% favorable to 30% unfavorable in Quinnipiac’s September 1 survey.  For Corzine, those numbers are upside down, as they have been for some time, at 56% unfavorable to 34% unfavorable.  

Christopher Christie's campaign wants the Corzine administration to release all documents related to a forensic review of a hedge fund that Gov. Jon Corzine invested that was conducted last year by the state Attorney General's office.

Republicans maintain that two hedge funds, Texas Pacific Group (TPG) and TPG-Axon, are related.  Democrats say a Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) report confirms no connection between the two groups.   Corzine in an investor in TPG-Axon and TPG has ownership in four New Jersey casinos.  State officials are not permitted to have a personal financial stake in casinos.

The GOP campaign says Hoover's, Dun and Bradstreet, and the Wall Street Journal  -- all prominent financial news publications -- have reported that TPG-Axon is a subsidiary of TPG.  The two share an office and personnel, but TPG maintains an internal firewall exists between the two funds.

"No matter how you slice it, Jon Corzine is partnered with people who hold a casino license. Corzine needs to release any and all documents that shed light on the casino license holders relationships with TPG-Axon," stated Campaign Manager Bill Stepien.

Stepien says that the DGE's letter to the state Casino Control Commission "references a number of other reports including a financial analysis of the license applicants and also reports detailing the 'credentials of the initial individual qualifiers' involved with license." 

"We need to know if the Attorney General's office ever investigated the role that TPG, and those who exercise control over it, play in TPG-Axon," added Stepien. 

The Corzine campaign strongly denies any connection between the governor and TPG's casino investments.

A radio gubernatorial debate is in the works, though it's unclear right now whether all three major candidates will agree to it.

Gov. Jon Corzine and Independent Christopher Daggett have said they will take part in a debate on WBGO - "Jazz 88" - on Thursday, October 22 at 8pm.  But Republican gubernatorial nominee Christopher Christie is waiting to see how Corzine reconsiders his refusal to attend the League of Women Voters debate for October 16, which would have been broadcast by the New York and Philadelphia ABC affiliate, and from NJ 101.5.

"Jon Corzine is afraid to debate on a major network affiliate with a large audience but agrees to a debate on a station whose board is stacked with Democrat party loyalists," said Christie strategist Michael DuHaime. "He should be willing to go on network if for no other reason than to apologize to as many New Jerseyans as possible for raising income, business and property taxes, taking way property tax rebates and property tax deductions and doubling the unemployment rate.  On Election Day, he won't be able to hide behind his money anymore."

After Corzine initially refused to participate in New Jersey Network's October 1 debate that was sanctioned by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC), NJN tried to move it back to October 22, since Corzine indicated he would take part then.  That led to ELEC's four commissioners deadlocked along partisan lines, and to Corzine acquiescing to the original date.  Christie Campaign Manager Bill Stepien then issued a statement inviting Corzine to debate on the later date, since "it appears his schedule is also open for a debate on Oct. 22."

"While we have agreed to the debate, Christie has not, even after he challenged the governor to debate on that very same date," said Corzine spokeswoman Elisabeth Smith.

This week, Governor Jon Corzine agreed to join the scheduled ELEC debate on October 1st and, in the process, made it clear that he is prepared to debate at any time.  Since the Governor asked for a debate on October 22nd, the Christie-Guadagno campaign would like to take him up on his offer and schedule a third debate to provide New Jerseyans an additional opportunity to hear the candidates discuss the vital issues facing our state.
 
Christie-Guadagno campaign manager Bill Stepien said, "Governor Corzine's calendar is open on October 22nd, so why not give New Jerseyans another opportunity to hear directly from the candidates on the important issues facing our state?  New Jersey is facing the highest property taxes in the country, 9.3 percent unemployment and record home foreclosures.  Chris welcomes a third debate because voters want to hear candidates discuss issues, not merely hide behind their negative television ads."