#Bridget Anne Kelly eyes run for Bergen County clerk

This might be a bridge too far.

Bridget Anne Kelly, a former aide to Chris Christie who was engulfed in the “Bridgegate” scandal, is weighing a run for public office.

The Bergen County Republican Party has asked Kelly if she’d be interested in running for county clerk in what would be an attempted political comeback, the Post has learned.

Kelly wrote the infamous email “Time for some Traffic Problems in Fort Lee” as part of a scheme that diverted traffic from the George Washington Bridge entrance into Fort Lee in 2013 to exact political retribution against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for not endorsing then-Gov. Christie’s re-election bid.

Kelly, 48, was convicted of hatching the Fort Lee traffic jam plan — which reduced traffic to the bridge from Fort Lee to just one lane, causing major backups in the borough for four days — along with Christie’s Port Authority executives Bill Baroni and David Wildstein.

But the US Supreme Court last May overturned the federal convictions against Kelly and Baroni. Kelly had been sentenced to 13 months.

Bergen County Republican Party chairman Jack Zisa argued that Kelly is an able administrator who deserves a second chance.

“I can absolutely say we encouraged Bridget to run. We’ve been rooting for her,” Zisa told The Post.

“This is an opportunity for Bridget to get back into the political arena. This would be a political comeback and an opportunity for her to get on with her life,” he said.

Bergen County GOP officials had not asked anyone other than Kelly to seek the office, which oversees county records.

Kelly, who has four kids and resides in Ramsey, N.J., has been a behind-the-scenes operative in Jersey government for decades and has never run for public office before.

But she is considering taking the plunge into choppy waters.

“I’m honored I was asked to run,” Kelly told The Post on Sunday. “I should be allowed to rebuild my life.”

Kelly has long maintained she became a convenient political scapegoat for the bridgegate scandal and said she’s had trouble gaining regular employment over the past seven years.

“Gov. Christie is responsible for a lot of what happened,” Kelly said when asked of the bridgegate scandal. “If Christie can run for president I should be able to run for county clerk.”

She said the traffic scandal certainly didn’t help Christie’s flame-out bid for president in 2016.

“People saw him scapegoat a single mom with four children,” Kelly said.

Christie claimed he had nothing to do with the traffic-jamming scheme carried out by key aides, whom he fired after the scandal exploded in public amid his presidential ambitions.

Bridgegate will still likely haunt her.

The Supreme Court, in its unanimous ruling, concluded that while Kelly and her cohorts’ actions didn’t amount to crimes because they had not sought money and therefore didn’t violate federal wire fraud laws, they had clearly abused their power.

“The evidence the jury heard no doubt shows wrongdoing—deception, corruption, abuse of power,” Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the decision.

Kelly admitted she’s not blameless and regretted sending the “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” email.

“The email was quick-witted, poorly worded. Obviously I regret it,” she said.

One Democratic lawmaker said she sympathized with Kelly.

“I have always felt that Chris Christie created the environment for Bridgegate. If Chris Christie could be a political pundit and talk about running for president there is no impediment to Bridget Kelly running for county clerk,” said state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck).

The Bergen County Clerk’s Office is the keeper of records including property and business ownership filings, handling passport applications and citizenship records and helping overseeing elections, among other duties.

The Bergen County Clerk’s Office is now run by John Hogan, a Democrat.