New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie hasn't appeared in public since his 107-minute damage-control press conference last week on the now-infamous bridge scandal. But today he'll have to emerge from the shadows for his annual state of the state address.
Christie is expected to focus on education and a post-Sandy New Jersey. But, for the public, those subjects will take a backseat in light of two recent scandals that have turned Christie's image from definite Republican presidential candidate into a governor who can barely manage the drama in his own state.
See also: Christie and the Bridge: A Political Scandal Made for Netflix
You can watch Christie's speech below at 3 p.m. EST. Until then, here are five things you need to know before he takes the podium.
If you're a bit behind on the George Washington Bridge fiasco, here's what you need to know: During Christie's reelection campaign last year, the mayor of Fort Lee, N.J., refused to endorse him. As payback, the governor's deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, conspired with David Wildstein of the Port Authority to close lanes of the George Washington Bridge for four days. This caused a huge traffic jam in Fort Lee, where many residents make the drive over the bridge into New York City for work on a daily basis. Newly revealed emails between Kelly and Weinstein put the scandal on the national stage last week, and Kelly was promptly fired. Wildstein and Christie's top man at the Port Authority, Bill Baroni, who was also involved, had already resigned. Christie maintains that he knew nothing of the conspiracy until the emails were made public. U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman and state legislators are still looking into the matter.
Christie may have misused government aid for Sandy relief in an ad campaign designed to bring back tourists to New Jersey. The campaign cost $25 million and prominently featured the governor and his family during a year in which he was running for reelection. The marketing firm that won the contract for the ad was also given $4.7 million, about $2 million more than the second-place company would have been awarded. The only difference between the two campaigns was the cheaper one didn't feature the governor. Now, the federal government is investigating Christie for possible misappropriation of funds.
Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop scheduled a number of meetings with the Christie administration before he informed the governor he could not support his bid for a second term, according to The New York Times. Those meetings — some about requests for help with recovery from Hurricane Sandy — were suddenly off, and other mayors who did not endorse Christie's reelection say they, too, have faced political retribution from the governor's office.
In the wake of the bridge scandal, whose rumblings first surfaced soon after the September lane closures, Christie's staff shut out the media. More than 900 documents released on Jan. 10 show that everyone from the governor's press secretary, Michael Drewniak, to his appointees in the Port Authority aggressively and systematically blocked reporters from attaining any information related to the traffic jam. Some of the emails were particularly hostile to New Jersey newspaper the Star-Ledger, where Drewniak was a reporter for 12 years.
Christie's approval rating among residents of New Jersey has dropped from 65% to 59% since news of the scandal broke onto the national scene. His disapproval rating has gone up from 25% to 32% in that same time.
Gov. Chris Christie will begin his speech at 3 p.m. EST. You can watch it live below.

Watch live streaming video from governorchrischristie at livestream.com
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