michaels who was the one who got to tell christie on election night 2009 that he'd won the race. when jeff michaels appeared on a public tv show after that 2009 election, he was asked if he was close to the governor. >> i've known him for a long time. we went to high school. our families knew each other from livingston. and just stayed in close contact with him over the years and was very pleased to help his campaign out with policy. >> close ties to the governor have caused jeff ma ed michaels are soar. the news site launched by david wildstein years ago that i used to work for, that jeff michaels even wrote a periodic column for, that site, politickernj.com, the first year christie was governor. according to their write-up, quote, the former chief of staff to donald defrancesco.