David Wildstein

David Wildstein, a former New Jersey Port Authority official who resigned last month, has been a fixture of New Jersey politics in various forms since at least age 23. Wildstein, now 52, is a former town council member, mayor, political operative, anonymous political writer and founder of the respected site PolitickerNJ.com. He and Christie both attended Livingston High School, though Wildstein was a year ahead of Christie and the extent of their relationship then is unclear. By 2010, Wildstein was brought on by a Christie appointee to serve as director of interstate capital projects for Port Authority, though Christie stressed in a press conference Thursday that the two rarely spoke during Wildstein’s tenure there. But his time in New Jersey politics far predates the Port Authority post. Wildstein has long been considered a political animal and some have described him as ruthless: Reports last month indicated that he bought the domain names of more than 50 people, including many New Jersey Democrats. His obsession with the game of politics began at an early age. “I love this [political] stuff,” said one individual who worked closely with Wildstein, “He was psychotic about it, I could beat most people in political trivia; I couldn’t last with him for two minutes.” At 23, Wildstein was elected to town council in Livingston, N.J., for a four-year term. During that period, he went on to become the city’s mayor, according to a lengthy 2012 profile in The Record (N.J.), which this week broke the bridge story. “It was a tumultuous time,” Wildstein’s council running mate, Thomas L. Adams, told the paper. “He was just a kid, a very ambitious kid.” Wildstein, who at age 12 volunteered for then-congressional candidate Tom Kean Sr., went on to work for several New Jersey politicians, including Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and the late Rep. Bob Franks (R-N.J.), the latter of whom he served as an adviser, the report noted. He launched PolitickerNJ.com — then called PoliticsNJ.com — in 2000 under the pen name “Wally Edge,” named for a former New Jersey GOP governor and senator. Wildstein, burly and bespectacled, was known for getting insider information from politicos on both sides of the aisle. “He was not a Christie-o-phile back then,” said the source who has worked closely with Wildstein, who is married with children. “Wally Edge” was known for driving the New Jersey political conversation with frequent, sometimes flippant, posts. “I’ve never met anybody … with more thorough institutional knowledge of New Jersey politics,” said Steve Kornacki, who got his start in journalism under Wildstein and now hosts a weekend show on MSNBC. News of his identity shocked New Jersey politicos. “After more than ten years covering New Jersey politics, it’s time for me to retire,” he wrote in a statement at the time. “Founding PolitickerNJ.com has been a tremendous journey, spanning six governors and seven statewide elections. New Jersey has an amazing political history, many talented (political) operatives, and a huge number of very good people.”