Voting Station

Kelly & Baroni (Bridget & Bill)

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Scapegoat

The Resume

    Former aides to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
    Key players in the Fort Lee lane closure scandal (later known as 'Bridgegate')
    Bridget Anne (Daul) Kelly, resident of Ramsay, NJ (served as legislative Deputy Chief of Staff; born Dec. 18, 1972 )
    Bill Baroni, resident of Hamilton, NJ (served as Deputy Executive Director of the New York/New Jersey Port Authority; born Dec. 10, 1971)
    Resigned/Fired amid controversy surrounding lane closures which were waged as an act of political retribution, after e-mails were released indicating as such (Dec. 12, 2013 - Jan. 9, 2014)
    Stood trial on counts of nine counts of conspiracy, fraud and related charges (2015-2016); were found guilty on all counts (Nov. 4, 2016)
    Received separate sentences of two years (Baroni) and 18 months (Kelly), with appeals pending (March 29, 2017)

Why they might be annoying:

    Bill Baroni authored a weight loss book called 'Fat Kid Got Fit: And So Can You!'
    Baroni had been involved in statewide politics since his high school days (when he acted as chauffeur to a Senate candidate).
    Baroni was accused of distributing valuable (widely coveted) debris from the World Trade Center attacks to NJ Mayors in exchange for political endorsements.
    They claimed to have really believed that shutting down lanes of the George Washington bridge - and the chaos which ensued - was 'for traffic study.'
    Because the email Bridget fired off reading 'time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee' obviously indicates that they had no idea what was going to result from multiple lane closures!
    Kelly also privately mocked Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich when she was shown a text from him complaining that the lane closures were holding up school buses, asking a colleague 'is it wrong I am smiling?' 'they are the children of Buono voters!'
    Their levity was particularly troubling considering that investigation probes later produced emails to the Port Authority detailing the urgent problems the closures had caused for emergency service vehicles, which were experiencing time delays (Baroni ignored them).
    True to this point, the increased traffic resulting disrupted efforts to find a missing child, administer aid to a car-wreck which injured four people, and the providing of emergency care to a 91-year-old woman suffering from cardiac arrest (who later died).
    They were accused of attempting to pressure colleagues into deleting several incriminating emails indicating their complicity in Bridgegate (Baroni specifically censured all appointees from discussing the matter further).

Why they might not be annoying:

    At the time of her sentencing, Bridget was a single-divorced mother with four kids.
    Bill was given up for adoption at birth by his unmarried mother.
    The circumstances of Baroni's birth became relevant during his State Senate run when his opponent tried to make him out to be a carpetbagger because he was born in Florida (it didn't go over well).
    While in the NJ State Senate, Bill was the only Republican to support a 2010 bill to legalize same-sex marriage (which the Republican-controlled legislature killed).
    Chris Christie completely threw them both under the bus, calling their actions 'stupid' and 'deceitful,' and claiming he was totally unaware of any of it (but almost nobody believed him).
    Bridget attested to experiencing verbal (and at times physical) abuse at the hands of Gov. Christie, who once threw a water bottle at her arm during one of his tirades.
    Donald Trump reportedly denied Christie a position in his administration after getting outraged over Christie's treatment of the two. According to one source, 'he didn't like seeing [Bridget] crying.'
    Actually, David Wildstein, a Port Authority senior official, probably bore more responsibility for the lane closures than either of them (he secured a plea deal and is awaiting sentencing, but dodged most of the blame at their expense).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 5 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 7 Votes: 14.29% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 33 Votes: 12.12% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 116 Votes: 46.55% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 99 Votes: 56.57% Annoying