Christie names several senior aides

Getting an early start on his administration, Gov.-elect Christopher J. Christie yesterday named former State Sen. Richard Bagger his chief of staff.

Christie, at a Statehouse news conference, also named transition committee director Jeffrey Chiesa his chief counsel.

"There is no doubt that we have a great deal of work ahead of us when our state is facing an ever-increasing deficit and an unemployment rate we must defeat," Christie said in a statement.

Christie, who will be sworn in Jan. 19, said he planned to delegate power to the front-office staff and was not interested in being a micromanager.

He chose his campaign manager, Bill Stepien, as deputy chief of staff for legislative affairs, and Kevin O'Dowd, the chief of securities and health-care fraud at the U.S. Attorney's Office, to be deputy counsel.

Christie continued his pattern of choosing aides he has a history with, saying it was important to be surrounded by people he knows well.

He previously chose Kim Guadagno, a former assistant U.S. attorney, as his lieutenant governor.

Chiesa works at the politically connected law firm Wolff & Samson, based in West Orange, N.J. He got his first job as a lawyer when Christie hired him to work at a firm in Cranford, N.J. When Christie went on to become the U.S. attorney, he took Chiesa with him.

Bagger, a Republican from Westfield, N.J., is senior vice president for worldwide public affairs with Pfizer Inc., the pharmaceutical giant. He served in the state Senate in 2002 and 2003 and the Assembly from 1993 to 2002.

Before Pfizer, Bagger was an in-house attorney for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey, and he has worked at the politically connected law firm McCarter & English.