By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor Carl Lewis, the nine-time Olympic gold medal winner in track and field who once set world records for sprinting, said Monday that New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie tripped him up in 2011 he tried a run of a different kind – for political office. Current Lieutenant Gov. Kim Guadagno, then the state's attorney general, ruled that Lewis hadn't lived in the Garden State long enough to run for a seat in the state senate. He was preparing to run as a Democrat against Republican state Sen. Dawn Addiego, a Christie friend and ally.
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Lewis, the 9-time Olympic gold medalist, says the guv muscled him off the ballot when he tried to run for state Senate after a longtime Christie chum
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Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, then the attorney general, overruled a judge in 2011 who decided Lewis had lived in the state long enough to get on the ballot
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The Christie administration spent $78,000 in attorneys' time getting the sprinter and long-jumper struck from the election
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But Christie isn't a bully, Lewis says now – just 'someone who's insecure, and he's governor now and has got the power'
@placeholder has looked haggard in recent days, as pressure mounts over his administration's handling of several new scandals