In firing Mr. Stepien, Mr. Christie cited a “tone, demeanor and attitude of callous indifference” in Mr. Stepien’s emails that “made me lose confidence in Bill’s trial.”
But the two have since reconciled.
“Even during that time period, when then-candidate Trump came up to me and asked me on the 16th whether or not I should hire Bill, I said I should do it,” said Christie, who said she now spoke to Mr. Stepien. several times a week. “There was no drop in terms of my confidence in Bill’s abilities during that time period.”
Stepien, 42, began his career in politics in 1997, while still a student at Rutgers, as a volunteer for the campaign for state senator Anthony R. Bucco of New Jersey. Mr. Stepien would work overnight at headquarters, after hockey practice, to send emails to absent voters, reminding them to return their ballots on time.
From there, Stepien slowly moved up the ranks of New Jersey politics. He served as the conductor of a Senate led by Bob Franks in 2000, as a lower-level staff member for Franks’ run for governor in 2001, and as campaign manager for Bill Baroni’s State Assembly run in 2003, in the one that Mr. Baroni beat out a Democratic incumbent in a traditionally Democratic district.
Baroni’s victory put Mr. Stepien on the New Jersey map. Mike DuHaime, a former New Jersey political operative, took him to his consulting firm, a job that led to positions on the Republican National Committee and in the 2008 presidential campaigns of Rudolph W. Giuliani and Senator John McCain.
But his political breakup came with Christie in 2009, when Stepien ran his first campaign for governor. Although his opponent, Jon Corzine, was a vulnerable starter, Christie was also up against an independent candidate, Chris Daggett, whom internal campaign polls had nearly 20 percent, keeping Christie trapped at 40 percent.
Mr. Stepien, along with Mr. DuHaime and Mr. Christie, hired TargetPoint, a Republican data firm, to ask Mr. Daggett’s supporters who their second choice was.
