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In Christie's shadow, Guadagno stays busy - and in succession mix

Kim Guadagno has toured New Jersey for almost five years as lieutenant governor, visiting hundreds of businesses and attending luncheons, conferences, and groundbreakings.

Kim Guadagno has toured New Jersey for almost five years as lieutenant governor, visiting hundreds of businesses and attending luncheons, conferences, and groundbreakings.

Though her public schedule is busy, the profile of the woman who could succeed Gov. Christie - as early as next year if he resigns to run for president - remains relatively low.

That doesn't surprise her. Christie "is the highest-profile governor in this country," Guadagno said in a phone interview last week. "Name me, if you could, any other lieutenant governor in the country."

As the state's first lieutenant governor, Guadagno, 55, was tasked by Christie with overseeing business-related initiatives, including coordinated efforts on business outreach and economic development. She has become a familiar presence in the business community, known for giving out her cellphone number.

She is also secretary of state - her $141,000 salary is technically for that duty - overseeing tourism, elections, and a number of commissions.

Those who have worked with Guadagno describe her as energetic, responsive, and a quick study.

"She is very, very inquisitive. She asks a lot of great questions, and she gets to the core of an issue really quickly," said Melanie Willoughby, acting president of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association.

Most of the events Guadagno attends, however, don't grab headlines or boost her name recognition with the public.

A recent poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University found 12 percent of Republican voters who responded said they would like her to be the nominee to replace Christie. A poll several months earlier showed that 68 percent of voters - including 66 percent of Republicans - who responded didn't know who she was.

Guadagno, a former federal prosecutor who has three sons and is married to an appellate division judge, said it would be disingenuous for her to say she wouldn't be interested in serving as governor when Christie leaves. Whether he runs for president in 2016, this is his last term as governor.

Guadagno said she'd had "a unique opportunity the last five years training for the job" and a perspective others don't have.

She has played a role in decisions on significant issues, she said, citing Hurricane Sandy and the budget process. "All of those were made with me sitting with the governor at the table."

Of her lack of name recognition, she said, "When the time is right," there "will be plenty of opportunity to raise the profile in the appropriate way."

But now isn't the time. Guadagno won't, for instance, talk about policy positions, calling it "absolutely too early" to do so.

"That is not the role of a lieutenant governor," she said. As a former Monmouth County sheriff - the position Guadagno held before joining Christie - "I would not have wanted my undersheriffs . . . going out ahead of me and telling me or anyone else how he or she thought the office should be run."

As Christie has traveled the country as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, Guadagno has been named acting governor.

Christie has described the title change as a technicality, saying he's still in charge when he's out of state and keeps in close contact by phone and Internet.

"I don't think there's any confusion among anybody in this state about who the governor is," Christie said at a news conference this month. "I don't think they really think Kim is the governor when I'm not here."

While Christie is away - he went to Illinois, Connecticut, Michigan, and Pennsylvania last week, and heads to Wisconsin and Ohio on Monday - he has at times announced action on legislation. On one Friday in August, his press office announced seven bill signings and 11 vetoes, though Christie was out of state.

In her nearly five years in office, Guadagno has signed 16 bills, according to her staff, including legislation requiring schools to train students in CPR and supporting a program connecting local farmers to schools.

She has also signed seven executive orders: one to create the commission she leads focused on reducing red tape in government and the rest to lower flags to half-staff, mostly in honor of fallen servicemen.

Guadagno said her office was "in complete communication" with Christie's office while he's away.

"So when the governor says he's always the governor, it's true," she said.

Guadagno's role could change if Christie, who was elected to his second and final term in November 2013, resigns early. A special election could be held, depending on the timing of a Christie departure. But Guadagno says she doesn't expect him to leave until the end of his term.

"I'm certainly prepared to do whatever - to follow whatever the governor's lead is," she said.

Besides Guadagno, other Republican names floated as potential candidates include Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr., Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, and Sen. Mike Doherty.

"You don't have a clear front-runner for anything that succeeds the governor," said Tom Wilson, a former Republican state party chairman. "Name identification is very hard to come by in this state."

To that extent, Guadagno is "very much in the mix, if it's something she chooses to do," Wilson said. And from her role working with businesses, "she's got a heck of a Rolodex," he said.

That could help Guadagno raise money, Wilson said.

But she also would face the challenge of distinguishing herself from Christie. "She's got to figure out a way to craft her own image," Wilson said.

The prospect of Guadagno's trying to make a name for herself might be enough to keep Christie in office longer, said Patrick Murray, a political analyst at Monmouth University.

"He doesn't want to leave anything to chance back home that somebody does something to embarrass him," Murray said.

Guadagno's tenure has not been without controversy. In January, she was accused by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer of tying Hurricane Sandy aid to approval of a redevelopment deal in the city - an accusation Guadagno denied.

Zimmer has said she met with the U.S. Attorney's Office over the allegations. A law firm Christie hired to conduct an internal review of the allegations and the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal said the claims had no merit.

A recent bill from the law firm showed the Department of State had received a subpoena that a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office said pertained to "Hoboken issues."

Guadagno said last week she would not comment "on an ongoing investigation."

"I'm confident it's going to be resolved very shortly," she said.

Asked about allegations that as Monmouth County sheriff she misrepresented an employee's title so he could simultaneously receive a salary and a pension, Guadagno said, "These cases are closed. Closed the investigation. Nothing there."

The Division of Criminal Justice, to which the matter was referred in 2011, closed its investigation in 2012, according to New Jersey Watchdog, a news website that has probed the issue. The site sued to obtain related records and has questioned whether a full investigation was conducted.

A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office declined to comment on the case Friday.

Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D., Gloucester), who serves on the red-tape commission Guadagno leads, said she had demonstrated "that she is strong, she's articulate. I think she's carried herself well."

Guadagno also has proved "very loyal, as she should be, as the lieutenant governor to the governor," Burzichelli said.

"She knows her role well."