Local Political Analyst: No End In Site For 'Bridgegate' Scandal
By Mike Dougherty
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The fallout from Bridgegate is unlikely to go away anytime soon, according to a political analyst who says the back and forth between the Christie Administration and a former Port Authority staffer is just heating up.
Former Port Authority manager David Wildstein claims to have evidence that Chris Christie knew about lane closures, despite the governor's public statements saying otherwise (see related story).
"We have no idea what his evidence is," says Rider University political science professor Ben Dworkin. "We don't know whether it's strong, whether it's direct, whether it's indirect. Nobody has seen it, other than Mr. Wildstein."
Dworkin says there is about to be a lot of over-analysis into what the governor meant when he said he didn't know about it.
"Are we talking about the alleged cover up? Or are we talking about just the involvement 'I never knew about it.' The involvement of senior staff or was he saying 'I never knew about the lane closures.'"
Dworkin believes this story is far from over. And he says the longer it goes on, the bigger impact it will have on the governor's presidential aspirations.
"This is not going away anytime soon," he says. "It's going to severely impact both the governor's ability to be governor as well as, I think, his presidential ambitions."