Metro

Christie names NJ AG Jeff Chiesa as interim senator

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie today named state Attorney General Jeff Chiesa, one of his longest and closest friends, to temporarily replace Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who died this week.

Chiesa, a Republican since 2000, has known Christie for 22 years.

“There are very few people in my life I know better than Jeff … almost as well as I know my own family,” Christie said. “I’ve known him since he was a brand-new lawyer.”

Chiesa served as the executive director of Christie’s transition team in 2009, then as his chief counsel for two years before Christie nominated him as Attorney General. Before that, Chiesa worked for Christie at the US Attorney’s Office and at the law firm of Wolff & Samson in its litigation group.

Lautenberg died on Monday after 30 years in the Senate.

The next day, Christie announced that he would not appoint a replacement to fill out the rest of Lautenberg’s term through 2014 but would instead hold a special election on Oct. 16. That drew swift criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike that Christie’s choice was purely self-serving.

That’s because Christie could have also chosen to hold the election on Nov. 5, when his name will be on the ballot in the governor’s race, but doing so likely would have brought more Democrats to the polls on Election Day.

“I understand I was confronted with a set of imperfect choices,” Christie said, defending his decision to have an early election. He argued that the framers of the state’s constitution wanted state and federal elections separate and that’s why he said he chose to go with the October option.

Chiesa said he won’t run for the open seat in October. Calling himself a conservative Republican, Chiesa said the first thing he wanted to work on to was to “make the border secure.”

The primary will be held in August and the deadline for candidates to file papers to run is Monday, sending contenders scrambling to decide and collect enough signatures to get on the ballot.

Among the Democrats who have already thrown their hat in the ring are US liberal Rep. Rush Holt, who is also a rocket scientist.

“The reason is simple,” Holt, 64, said in an email yesterday to supporters. “I believe I am the best candidate to continue the passionate advocacy for progressive values that Sen. Lautenberg exemplified.”

Rep. Frank Pallone and Newark Mayor Cory Booker have also said they are considering it, and both have considerable war chests.

The only Republican brave enough to run so far is former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, who ran against Christie in 2009’s gubernatorial primary. Lonegan is the head of the New Jersey office for Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group funded by the oil baron Koch brothers.

In choosing Chiesa, Christie passed over former state Sens. Joe Kyrillos and Tom Kean Jr., who have both run against New Jersey’s other senator, Bob Menendez, in recent years and lost. Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno’s name was also floated as a possibility, but then Christie would have needed a new running mate for his ticket.

Chiesa had been Attorney General role for nearly two years, and insiders tell The Post he was considering leaving at the end of the governor’s term.

Though he has never held public office, Chiesa quipped that when confronted with the offer to become a US Senator, “There was no arm twisting.”