11 things you should know about Kim Guadagno now that she's running for N.J. governor

TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie won't be on the Republican ticket in 2017 -- or will he?

It's the question that haunts Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who for seven years loyally stuck by one of the most unpopular governors in modern memory, but now hopes the Garden State will judge her on her own merits.

The Republican filed paperwork needed to run for governor last Thursday, and will formally announce her candidacy on Tuesday.

Despite spending the last seven years in the state's second-most powerful job, only about 40 of registered voters recognized her name, according to the Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind Poll.

The good news for Guadagno is that's about the same number of voters as recognizes the Democratic front-runner, Phil Murphy, who's spent over $10 million of his own money for about the same level of name recognition.

Here's what you need to know about Guadagno:

1. She's the state's first lieutenant governor.

Until 2006, New Jersey's constitution specified that if the governor quit or died, the state Senate president would assume the role of acting governor and continue to hold the powerful role in the upper chamber of the Legislature.

Nobody complained about it until the need for one cropped up twice within a few years: In 2001, when Gov. Christie Whitman left office early to become head of the Environmental Protection Agency, and three years later when Gov. James E. McGreevey resigned in scandal.

In 2005, a constitutional referendum to create a lieutenant governor post for the 2009 election, passed easily, 56 percent to 44 percent.

Guadagno made history after Christie picked her as his running mate and won.

Unlike most state workers, however, she doesn't get a state pension. Her service as lieutenant governor doesn't count toward a pension.

2. She's a road warrior

For seven-plus years, Guadagno has constantly been on the road as Christie's loyal stand-in, cutting ribbons, attending events, hosting round-tables. She's served as acting governor hundreds of times as Christie frequently left New Jersey to pursue a presidential bid. While not well known to the public, she's no a stranger to party regulars in every single county.

3. She spent 7 years cutting red tape for N.J. businesses.

Christie was loathe to share the spotlight, but was content to give Guadagno free rein over regulation slashing, overseeing both the New Jersey Partnership for Action, which oversees economic development strategy, and the Red Tape Review Commission, a bipartisan group aimed at reducing regulatory burdens on business.

She's seen as approachable, unassuming and easy to deal with, having made it a policy to share her personal cell phone number in the middle of speeches to business leaders.

Guadagno is against raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, because she believes "it was never intended to provide a living wage." More, if Democrats approve it, she warns, "you're pumping your own gas."

She's also against requiring private employers to provide paid sick leave, believing it would result in lost jobs.

4. She supports abortion rights.

Unlike Christie, Guadagno supports abortion rights, though she has said she would like to see fewer women choose the option.

5. She's former law enforcement, specializing in public corruption cases.

Like Christie, she's a former federal prosecutor. Unlike Christie, she earned the job the hard way. While the governor was named U.S. attorney of the state of New Jersey as a reward for fundraising for George W. Bush's presidential election, Guadagno started out as a federal prosecutor with the organized crime and racketeering strike force in Brooklyn.

After she moved to Monmouth County, Guadagno became the Assistant United States Attorney in Newark.

Like Christie, she focused on public corruption cases. From 1994 to 1998, Guadagno prosecuted former Democratic Essex county executive Thomas D'Alessio and Somerset County prosecutor Nicholas Bissell, a Republican.

After several years working as an assistant attorney general for the state of New Jersey and teaching at Rutgers law school, she was elected the 75th sheriff of Monmouth County in 2007, the first woman to serve in the post.

6. Her name came up in one of Christie's minor scandals.

While running for lieutenant governor in 2009, Guadagno received help from one of her fellow county sheriffs, Hunterdon Sheriff Deborah Trout, also a significant Republican donor and Christie supporter.

A year later, Trout was indicted by the Hunterdon County assistant prosecutor Bennett Barlyn, along with Undersheriff Michael Russo and investigator John Falat Jr., charged with official misconduct and falsification of documents.

But soon, then-state Attorney General Paula Dow stepped in and quashed the indictment, calling it legally and factually deficient.

Barlyn was fired later that year after he complained to a superior that he felt the case was dropped for political reasons, alleging that either Guadagno or a top GOP donor intervened.

The state attorney general ultimately settled with Barlyn late last year for $1.5 million after spending some $3 million litigating the case. A spokesman for the attorney general called the decision to settle merely "an economic one" insisting "we believe we would have prevailed in court."

7. She emerged from Bridgegate unscathed.

In January 2014, Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer appeared on MSNBC to claim that Guadagno had told privately her that the city's Hurricane Sandy relief was contingent on Zimmer making sure zoning laws were changed to allow the Rockefeller Group, a real estate developer with ties to now-convicted Port Authority chairman David Samson, to develop a project in Hoboken.

After a 16-month investigation, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey concluded that Zimmer's claim could not be proven, and closed the case.

8. She broke with Christie over Trump but ...

In October 2016, after an "Access Hollywood" video leaked showing Donald Trump making vulgar comments about women, Guadagno broke Christie's support of the controversial Republican presidential candidate. She publicly took to Twitter to reject the tycoon's mea culpa, writing that "no apology can excuse away Mr. Trump's reprehensible comments degrading women."

In an interview with NJ Advance Media, she clarified that she would not vote for Trump.

But then, on the eve of Election Day, Guadagno appeared in a GOP robocall that went out to thousands of New Jersey's registered Republican voters, urging them to vote for "great" Republican candidates "from the top of the ticket, to the bottom."

9. She hails from Iowa.

She was born Kimberly Ann McFadden in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1959 and moved frequently while growing up because her father managed radio stations around the country. She went to college in Pennsylvania and attended law school in Washington D.C.

She moved to New Jersey after marrying Michael Guadagno, and has been a resident of Monmouth Beach since 1991.

Her husband is an appellate court judge who was first appointed to the bench in 2005 by Gov. Richard Codey, a Democrat. He is now in the appellate division, but will reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 later this year.

She's also mother to three sons, the oldest of whom, Kevin Guadagno, attended the U.S. Air Force Academy and will graduate from fighter pilot training in March.

10. She's also the secretary of state for New Jersey.

In addition to her work streamlining regulations, Christie appointed Guadagno secretary of state, overseeing all elections, as well as artistic, cultural, historical programs as well as volunteerism and community service projects.

She courted controversy in Christie's first term by publicly accusing the state Council on the Arts of sloppy oversight, implying that some $300,000 in state funds may have been fraudulently awarded, and pressed for greater control of the council.

Guadagno's explosive testimony before a legislative committee led to the resignation of the council's executive director, even though a seven month long probe by the state attorney general's office later found no wrongdoing.

11. She didn't go to 100-plus Springsteen shows.

While Christie has traveled the world to see New Jersey icon Bruce Springsteen perform, Guadagno said she broke this bit of news to him when they first ran in 2009: "I said, 'Chris, you know I'm a country music fan.'"

Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

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