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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: BayGBM on February 03, 2015, 04:32:55 AM
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In Christie’s Career, a Fondness for Luxe Benefits When Others Pay the Bills
By KATE ZERNIKE and MICHAEL BARBARO
As Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey waited to depart on a trade mission to Israel in 2012, his entourage was delayed by a late arrival: Mr. Christie’s father, who had accidentally headed to the wrong airport.
A commercial flight might have left without him, but in this case, there was no rush. The private plane, on which Mr. Christie had his own bedroom, had been lent by Sheldon G. Adelson, the billionaire casino owner and supporter of Israel. At the time, he was opposing legislation then before the governor to legalize online gambling in New Jersey.
Mr. Christie loaded the plane with his wife, three of his four children, his mother-in-law, his father and stepmother, four staff members, his former law partner and a state trooper.
King Abdullah of Jordan picked up the tab for a Christie family weekend at the end of the trip. The governor and two staff members who accompanied him came back to New Jersey bubbling that they had celebrated with Bono, the lead singer of U2, at three parties, two at the king’s residence, the other a Champagne reception in the desert. But a small knot of aides fretted: The rooms in luxurious Kempinski hotels had cost about $30,000; what would happen if that became public?
It did not, for the moment. But it would not have been the first or last time that Mr. Christie’s desire for celebrity access and expensive trips has raised eyebrows.
The governor, a Republican now preparing a run for president, shot to national prominence as a cheese-steak-on-the-boardwalk Everyman who bluntly preached transparency and austerity as the antidote to bloated state budgets. But throughout his career in public service, Mr. Christie has indulged a taste that runs more toward Champagne at the Four Seasons.
He has also quietly let others pay the bills.
That tendency — the governor himself says he wants to “squeeze all the juice out of the orange” — has put him in ethically questionable situations, taking benefits from those who stand to benefit from him.
Mr. Christie is hardly the first politician, in either party, whose embrace of luxury travel has prompted criticism. Hillary Rodham Clinton, for example, a potential Democratic candidate for president, is known for her dependence on private planes often paid for by others.
Last month, Mr. Christie prompted a state ethics inquiry after he flew to at least three games of the Dallas Cowboys, his team since boyhood, on the plane of the owner, Jerry Jones, whose company had received a contract with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey after the governor recommended it.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Christie, who is currently on a three-day trip to London, did not dispute the details of the trip to Israel and Jordan, which were described in interviews with several people close to the administration or involved in the trip, and in documents seen by The New York Times.
But the spokeswoman, Maria Comella, described King Abdullah as “a friend” the governor met at a salon-style dinner in New York hosted by Michael R. Bloomberg, who was the mayor at the time. “King Abdullah invited the governor and his family to Jordan as his personal guest so the two families could spend time together,” she said on Sunday.
Ms. Comella also said Mr. Adelson had not been personally lobbying the governor against the online gambling bill.
In the end, Mr. Christie signed the bill. He cited pressure from unions that argued it was needed to keep casinos open, and the need for revenue to balance the budget.
Mr. Adelson later told a somewhat different story: He said Mr. Christie told him that had he vetoed the bill, as Mr. Adelson would have wanted, it would have been overridden.
That, in retrospect, seems unlikely. Republicans in the Legislature have previously changed their positions rather than override a veto by Mr. Christie.
The governor has also been a guest on the private plane and in the stadium box of Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets and another opponent of the gambling bill.
Early in his tenure, Mr. Christie set up a group to entice foreign businesses to New Jersey. That group, Choose N.J., is financed by companies that are forbidden by pay-to-play laws to donate to the governor, because they have business before the state, including legal work, and contracts for roads and infrastructure.
(Last month, Choose N.J. announced that it had appointed as its president and chief executive Michele Brown, one of Mr. Christie’s closest confidantes and a neighbor, who has worked for him since his days as a United States attorney.)
The group partly financed the 2012 trip to Israel, as well as three trips the governor has taken over the last year, to Mexico, Canada and his current destination, London.
Mr. Christie’s foreign travel has helped him build his credentials and his contacts as he prepares to run for president. Choose N.J. sounded dubious in a report last year about enticing business from Britain. Interest was strongest, it found, from Belgium, France, Germany, Israel, Sweden and Switzerland. But London is a prime market for fund-raising among American expatriates: In 2012, President Obama and Mitt Romney raised more money in Britain than in any other foreign country.
While previous New Jersey governors have flown commercial for trade missions, Mr. Christie flew privately for three. (His spokeswoman said he flew commercial to London.) He has taken family on all. He stays in five-star properties: the King David in Jerusalem, the Intercontinental in Mexico City. The hotel in London, the Corinthia, has a Baccarat chandelier and masses of flowers refreshed every morning.
Mr. Christie’s entourage takes over conference rooms laid out with elaborate spreads of food at all hours. Ms. Comella said Mr. Christie’s office sought a lower rate for government officials whenever possible.
Letting the king pay for his three-day weekend in Jordan back in 2012 would not have been allowed if Mr. Christie were, say, president or a United States senator; it is illegal for federal employees to accept gifts of more than nominal value from agents of foreign governments. An executive order Mr. Christie signed in 2010 allows New Jersey governors to have travel and related expenses paid by foreign governments; it does not specifically address gifts such as the parties the king held for him, but the governor’s staff said it was covered under a provision that allowed gifts from personal friends.
Mr. Christie has described it as a matter of opportunity. “I relish these experiences and exposures, especially for my kids,” he told a reporter for The Times last summer. “I try to squeeze all the juice out of the orange that I can.”
As he has traveled more widely, particularly during the last year, when he led the Republican Governors Association, Mr. Christie’s first-class tastes have become well known. He made it clear when he campaigned for Mr. Romney in 2012 that he would do out-of-state events only if he was given a private plane, even during the primary, when the candidate’s wife was still flying commercial to save money. The Romney campaign came to understand that he preferred a Cessna Citation X, which, its manufacturer boasts, has exotic wood interiors and a Rolls-Royce engine.
While many high-profile Republican politicians resist insinuating themselves into celebrity circles, Mr. Christie seeks them out — Howard Stern in the Hamptons; Donald J. Trump at Jean-Georges in Manhattan, where the menu begins at $128 per person. He danced onstage with Jamie Foxx at a celebrity benefit at the Hamptons in August before a crowd that included Barbra Streisand, Paul McCartney, Jack Nicholson and Robert De Niro.
State taxpayers paid for Mr. Christie, his wife and two aides to travel to the 2013 Super Bowl in New Orleans, as New Jersey prepared to host the 2014 game. Airfare for four passengers came to $8,146; Mr. Christie’s hotel for three nights cost $3,371.
He has fought to shield the cost of his travel. The Super Bowl expenses were revealed only after a judge’s order in a lawsuit brought by The Record, a newspaper in northern New Jersey. In response to other lawsuits and public records requests, the governor’s office has argued that he is not subject to disclosure laws regarding travel, or that it does not have the records.
Groups like Choose N.J. and the Republican Jewish Coalition, which also contributed to the Israel trip, do not have to disclose their expenses.
As United States attorney for New Jersey, Mr. Christie developed a reputation for flouting the rules on travel. A Justice Department report after he left office found that he was the prosecutor who most often exceeded the charges allowed for hotel stays in different cities, without properly searching for a cheaper alternative, or justifying any exemption from the rules. He stayed at a Four Seasons in Washington and a new boutique hotel in Boston, for example, at more than double the cost allowed for those cities.
The report concerned hotel stays, but Mr. Christie’s preference for car services over taxis earned a footnote: He paid $236 to travel four miles from the airport in Boston, and $562 for a round-trip between Central London and Heathrow. Mr. Christie, who by then was governor, declined to be interviewed by investigators preparing the Justice Department report.
The revelations in the report prompted the Justice Department to tighten rules about exemptions to stay in costly hotels.
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He's a typical pos politician.
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He's a typical pos politician.
yeah. he's a great pick for people with liberal beliefs + hate obama.
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Typical fatty mentality.
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Typical fatty mentality.
I guess then you can relate and would know about it. :D
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Living the high life... on someone else's dime... accepting largess from those with business before the state... where have we heard of this before? Oh that's right: Bob McDonnell, the convicted former governor of Virgina. Bah! Doom disapproves.
Nice plane by the way; Doom can see why he favors it.
http://cessna.txtav.com/citation/citation-x
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I guess then you can relate and would know about it. :D
Is that where your self loathing and closet homo tendencies stem from? Having to assume things about people you don't even know is a sign of rampant insecurities. Most short people suffer like that.
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Is that where your self loathing and closet homo tendencies stem from? Having to assume things about people you don't even is a sign of rampant insecurities. Most short people suffer like that.
Do not call him out; he will start crying and run to the mods for protection. Bah ha ha ha ha
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Do not call him out; he will start crying and run to the mods for protection. Bah ha ha ha ha
It's not a mod... it's his self elected baby sitter.
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Is that where your self loathing and closet homo tendencies stem from? Having to assume things about people you don't even know is a sign of rampant insecurities. Most short people suffer like that.
LOL - im in top shape wo T-Shots as you need. I'll post a pic of today and you do the same and let others judge ok? I got 10 years on you and you are still a 30 ypo little hipster fag and will always be
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LOL - im in top shape wo T-Shots as you need. I'll post a pic of today and you do the same and let others judge ok? I got 10 years on you and you are still a 30 ypo little hipster fag and will always be
"Need"?
Seems like every time I ask you where you got this notion, you run away like a little bitch and never answer.
Your queer tendencies is escaping right now.
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Chris Christie’s confrontational approach to the media worked in New Jersey. It won’t in 2016.
By Chris Cillizza
Quick, say the first thing that comes to your mind when I say "Chris Christie." If you are like most people -- and by that I mean the kind of person who has thoughts about Chris Christie in February 2015 -- you likely said "Bridgegate," "tough," "bully" or "straight talking." Put aside Bridgegate for the moment (yes, I know it's hard). The last three adjectives describing Christie all speak to the persona he has built during his five-plus years as governor of New Jersey: Unafraid of confrontation -- whether that's with his allies, his enemies or the media.
The Christie creation story -- tough guy, no bull -- is rooted, in fact, in a back and forth he had with Tom Moran, a columnist for the Newark Star-Ledger back in 2010.
"This is who I am, and this is who the people elected," Christie told Moran.
True enough. Christie got elected -- and re-elected, convincingly, in no small part on the force of that personality -- on the idea that he, like most New Jerseyans, won't take any guff. The problem for Christie is that he's not running in New Jersey anymore. He's (going to be) running for president in 2016. And the I-make-the-rules-and-the-media-follows-them mentality won't work in that race nearly as well as they have to date in his political career.
Exhibit number one comes to us from today, the final day of Christie's presidential trip trade mission to England: "When I asked Christie about ISIS and his UK meetings, he said
"Is there something you don't understand about 'No Questions'?""
--Phillip Rucker
Before I go any further, let me acknowledge a few things: 1. I am a reporter. 2. I work for The Washington Post. 3. Phil Rucker is a colleague who I respect and admire. So, caveats.
Okay. Now here's the thing: When you are a potential candidate for president, you don't get to dictate when you answer questions. You are on a trade mission that is, it seems to me, a thinly veiled attempt to bolster your foreign policy credentials ahead of a likely presidential bid in 2016. And it's not as though Phil yelled, "Hey Governor, what do you think about the results of the Royal Rumble?" ISIS's beheadings -- and today's burning alive of a Jordanian pilot -- have captured the world's attention. It's just the sort of thing that someone who wants to be the leader of the free world should have an opinion on -- and be willing to share with reporters. Let me remind you: A HUGE part of the reason Christie is on this trip is to burnish the idea that someone whose totality of elected experience is as a governor can be a thoughtful leader on foreign policy.
So there's that. But the dismissiveness of Christie to even the idea of taking questions is what's really problematic. Answering questions on all sorts of things is what you do when you run for president. Many of the questions are from people in places like Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire. Others are from local reporters. Lots are from the national media. The point is that Christie needs to get a lot more comfortable with answering the occasional shouted -- or unplanned -- question. (You don't get to totally ignore reporters until you get to be president. That's one of the few things presidents of both parties agree on.) Ask Rudy Giuliani or Hillary Clinton, circa 2008, how running a campaign openly disdainful of those who sought answers to questions went.
Best-case scenario for Christie: Stung by the national hubbub his comments on vaccinations in a press gaggle earlier this week created, he was a little sensitive to questions from reporters when, in theory, it was not a designated time to ask questions. That would be a) understandable and b) a passing phase. But Christie would do well to remember that this is the kick-the-tires phase of the campaign. If you don't like how people kick the tires, you need to find a new profession.
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"Need"?
Seems like every time I ask you where you got this notion, you run away like a little bitch and never answer.
Your queer tendencies is escaping right now.
Why else would a 30 yo be on that who doesn't even lift seriously, or at all?
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Why else would a 30 yo be on that who doesn't even lift seriously, or at all?
Who said I didn't lift seriously? Is this another lie you make up to soothe your insecurities?
Projecting false assumptions onto other people you don't even know
helps you with your BBC obsession? Is that it? Life is difficult
enough being a midget and a closet case? Rather than seeking meds
for the mental instability you have given yourself with your self loathing,
you instead attempt to feel better with projections.
Again, where does this "need" come from in your mind? Answer or run away like a bitch again, what will it be?
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Chris Christie’s Rich Friendships
By Amy Davidson
There are so many people who consider Chris Christie a true friend, according to Chris Christie. This isn’t just a matter of love but of legality, because New Jersey’s ethics rules stipulate that the state’s governor has more leeway in accepting gifts from his personal friends than from, say, businessmen with an interest in the Port Authority, or from the king of a Middle Eastern country. Unless, that is, the governor is a guy like Christie, whom no mogul or monarch could resist. According to a report in the Times, when Christie was asked why King Abdullah of Jordan “picked up the tab” for a weekend getaway for the governor—and three of his children, his wife, her mother, his mother, and his stepfather—his office cited the true-friend rule. “King Abdullah invited the governor and his family to Jordan as his personal guest so the two families could spend time together,” a spokeswoman told the paper. They’d met at a dinner given by Mike Bloomberg, a detail that was somehow offered as proof that the relationship was real. The family time included a thirty-thousand-dollar bill at a Kempinski hotel and “a Champagne reception in the desert.”
True friendship was also the reason Christie didn’t worry about going to football games with Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. As I’ve written before, one of the puzzles in that story, as in this one, is whether Christie believes his own excuse—that his wealthy hosts take disinterested pleasure in his company—or is offering it cynically. The first suggests a delusional faith in his own charm (and that of his stepfather, mother-in-law, etc.), the other an openness to trading on his office. Neither is good, and both make him vulnerable.
He acts as though that hadn’t occurred to him. “I relish these experiences and exposures, especially for my kids,” the Times quoted him as saying. “I try to squeeze all the juice out of the orange that I can.” He seemed to assume that he’d be regarded—even praised—as a doting father, rather than as a dubious politician.
Friendship isn’t everything. Christie also signed an executive order that made it possible for interest groups and foreign governments to pay for him to go around the world, as a travelling advertisement for New Jersey. The vacation in Jordan came at the end of a junket to Israel—a trade mission—for which the many Christies flew on a plane owned by Sheldon Adelson, the gambling magnate who has spent millions on Republican candidates and is likely to do so again in 2016. (See Ryan Lizza for more on the Christie-Adelson relationship.) Part of that trip was paid for by a group called Choose NJ, which, the Times noted, “is financed by companies that are forbidden by pay-to-play laws to donate to the governor.” Its president is a neighbor of Christie’s. Choose NJ paid for a Christie trip this week, which is why his measles-abetting remarks about parental choice and vaccines were issued from the United Kingdom. Some of the reports on the measles story included a photo of Christie and his wife, Mary Pat, visiting a British company, in a lab coat and goggles.
All this is emerging during the rush for potential candidates to get commitments from big Republican donors, which turned into a free-for-all after Mitt Romney announced on Friday that he wouldn’t run. Earlier that day, Mark Halperin, of Bloomberg, reported that one factor Romney and his circle had considered was what they saw as Christie’s unsustainability: “Thanks to the 2012 veep vetting process, Romney became intimately familiar with some of the less publicized controversies from the New Jersey governor’s past, and believes that several of those flaps would mushroom so broadly that Christie soon would be eliminated from consideration by voters and donors.” There was a similar message in “Double Down,” the book that Halperin wrote with John Heilemann. Still, Romney and Christie had dinner Friday night. Whatever doubts Romney may have about Christie, he apparently doesn’t want to help Jeb Bush. And someone has to win the Republican nomination.
That person will probably face Hillary Clinton. One defense Christie has, which Joe Scarborough, of MSNBC, quickly offered Tuesday morning, is that Clinton has a wealthy-host problem, too. Hers might be bigger, if one factors in Bill Clinton’s travels and the stray oligarch in their circle. That suggests some dispiriting prospects for 2016. If it’s Clinton vs. Christie, there will be private planes spotted in all directions. If it’s Clinton vs. Bush, there will be no dodging of dynasts. We may be looking forward to a campaign defined by operatives leaking duelling flight manifestos, questionable consulting agreements, and intemperate statements by former Presidents turned campaign surrogates. But maybe we’d have that no matter who the candidates are. It’s better than letting the money change hands in silence.
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Complications for Chris Christie with ally’s new job?
by Bob Jordan
TRENTON – The woman behind the award of a $25 million state contract for Sandy recovery TV commercials starring Gov. Chris Christie is leaving her government job.
But Michele Brown is maintaining close ties to the Republican governor, raising questions on whether she’ll have an outsized influence with her longtime boss in her new job with business marketing group Choose New Jersey.
Brown has been Christie’s top economic adviser the last three years as head of the state Economic Development Authority, a job Christie recommended her for.
As Choose New Jersey’s president and chief executive officer, Brown will have a salary of $450,000, double what she made with the state, and will advocate for public utilities, corporations and contractors -- the same entities that received lucrative state contracts and tax breaks while Brown was at the EDA.
Choose New Jersey is a non-profit organization with a $3 million budget generated by membership fees from companies prevented by pay-to-play laws from donating to the governor. Many of the companies employ their own lobbyists.
New Jersey has “revolving door’’ laws in place -- designed to restrict the influence former state officials have on government policy – but the rules don’t cover Brown’s job change or prevent Brown from pursuing more tax breaks for her group’s members, said former state Sen. William Schluter, a Republican and past member of the State Ethics Commission.
“She’s a close associate of the governor and there’s been some talk about the access she’s had and the access she’ll have in her new role,’’ Schluter said. “If someone who was a lawmaker or head of a certain department wanted to become a lobbyist, they’d have to wait at least a year. That doesn’t apply here. There’s a fine line when you go to work for a group that’s having a particular interest advanced.’’
A number of other states have post-employment cooling-off periods, mandating a length of time before a former government regulator may begin work within the industry he or she once regulated.
Long Branch resident Jerry Zaro, who headed the state Office of Economic Growth under former Gov. Jon Corzine, said Brown “is too talented to sit on the sidelines.’’
Zaro is an attorney at Sills Cummis & Gross, a Choose New Jersey member.
“Any incentives that are fair for the business community, all the better. Remember, the incentives only come out of taxes that would otherwise never be paid if a business wasn’t enticed to stay or come to our state,’’ Zaro said.
“Michele Brown is great,’’ he added. “She’s a quick study and a good hire. If you’re playing a football game and you have Tom Brady on the team, do you want to him to sit out a series of downs just for the sake of sitting out?’’
A Choose New Jersey spokeswoman said Brown wasn’t available for an interview and Christie’s press office did not respond to a request for comment.
At the EDA, Brown led a contract evaluation panel that chose the “Stronger Than the Storm’’ marketing campaign that featured Christie in 2013. The winning bidder proposed putting Christie in the ads and charged nearly twice the amount for labor and mark-up costs than the second-place bidder proposed. The runner-up didn’t plan on having Christie in a starring role.
Brown is a former federal prosecutor in New Jersey who resigned that post in 2009 amid controversy over a loan of $46,000 from Christie. The loan was given in 2007 when Christie was a U.S. attorney and she was a subordinate in his office. Christie's failure to disclose the loan became an issue in his first gubernatorial campaign in 2009. The loan has since been repaid.
Choose New Jersey partially funded Christie’s recent trip to the United Kingdom and also covered some of his travel bills to Canada and Mexico within the last six months.
Brown went on all three trips, including the U.K. tour -- which took place after she was hired by Choose New Jersey’s board of directors.
Her first day as leader of Choose New Jersey will be Feb. 16.
Christie said the three trips were trade missions on behalf of the state but Sen. Raymond Lesniak, D-Union, said the tours were designed to promote Christie’s potential presidential campaign.
Lesniak faulted Choose New Jersey for chipping in on the costs.
“I think Choose New Jersey needs to focus on its mission of promoting business rather than promoting Gov. Christie's political ambitions,’’ Lesniak said. “They should provide a full accounting of its contributors, expenditures and accomplishments.’’
Ben Ray, a spokesman for American Bridge, a Democratic opposition research group keying on Christie as he moves toward a possible bid for the presidency, called Brown’s access to Christie on behalf of Choose New Jersey “more ethical smoke around the governor.’’
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A quieter Chris Christie emerges in Iowa, hoping to find a path to 2016
By Robert Costa February 10 at 8:08 PM
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — A man claiming to be the brash-talking governor of New Jersey showed up at a gathering of Republicans here this week and spoke quietly about his record and his priorities — cutting government, keeping the nation safe and, if necessary, working with Democrats.
Gone were the bluster and bravado that have made Chris Christie a long-touted contender for the White House. The new Chris Christie was serious, earnest, calmly gesturing as he spoke — hoping to reach the kind of moderate, business-friendly Republican voters he will need if he is to compete in Iowa and eventually take the GOP presidential nomination.
“I’m not too blunt and too direct to be in Iowa or any place else in this country,” Christie assured the well-dressed Republicans, who paid $25 per ticket. “I know there are times you may see or read something that I’ve said and say, ‘Oh my gosh, I cannot believe he said that out loud.’ ”
The reception to Christie’s soft pitch, however, was decidedly mixed.
He “seemed a little flat,” Craig Robinson, a former political director of the Iowa Republican Party, said in a blog post afterward. “. . . I couldn’t shake the fact that the guy speaking to a room of 60 people in West Des Moines was the same guy who provided the keynote address for the 2012 Republican National Convention.”
This is one of the central challenges facing Christie, who just a week earlier was making waves in London by questioning the necessity of mandatory vaccinations and barking down reporters for asking questions. At the last GOP convention, he garnered accolades and howls for a self-aggrandizing speech focused on his accomplishments and his tough persona.
But that version of Christie is less attractive amid New Jersey’s credit downgrades, a traffic scandal and other troubles in Trenton. Christie now finds himself lagging behind the potential 2016 pack in surveys of Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire, which begin the nominating process next year.
So in a windowless conference room in a suburban Marriott here Monday night, Christie set out to provide a sober, understated rationale for his likely candidacy. He told the audience that his record stacks up well against those of former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and other GOP hopefuls, pointing in particular to his ability to negotiate with a Democratic legislature in a Democratic state.
“I don’t think there are a lot of governments across this country that will be able to tell you that they’re actually spending less than they did seven years ago,” Christie said. He added later for the Iowa guests that he had taken on New Jersey lawmakers who tried to ban gestational crates for pigs, “yet we produce almost no pork.”
“If that doesn’t prepare you for the craziness of Washington, D.C., I don’t know what would,” Christie said as the crowd chuckled.
Many attendees said they first heard of Christie when he was battling teachers unions in 2010, during his first gubernatorial term, and learned about him mostly through YouTube videos of combative town hall meetings that made him, for a period, one of the conservative movement’s leading lights.
What drew them to Christie at the time wasn’t so much the details of his gubernatorial record but the forceful way he articulated his vision. His unapologetic bombast in a party dominated by stiff suits was the draw.
That approach has been shelved. Unlike some Christie events in New Jersey, where promotional videos with pulsing soundtracks play before he roams onstage with Bruce Springsteen-like swagger, Christie’s stagecraft here was bare-bones, with only a glass of water, a lectern and a brief introduction.
Christie stuck to a muted mien during his 40-minute presentation, dutifully listing a range of what he considers to be his most notable achievements, from reducing the number of state employees to capping state property taxes.
Heads nodded respectfully throughout, but the applause was sporadic. The biggest round of clapping came for a barb about President Obama being “a man in a dark room struggling up against the wall, looking for the light switch of leadership.”
Some in the crowd appreciated the tact. Miriam Fox, 47, a neurology technician at a Des Moines hospital, said that “it was exactly the right tone. He was respectful of the audience, of Iowa.”
Christie carefully played up his middle-class roots — a point of contrast with recent controversies over his embrace of wealthy Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and a New York Times report on his penchant for private planes and luxe hotels.
“I have an Irish father, and I had a Sicilian mother,” he said. “Now, what this means is, from a very young age, I became adept at conflict resolution.”
Christie also cited his broadly hawkish views on foreign affairs.
“Global terrorism and radical Islam is not a theory to me,” said Christie, a former federal prosecutor. He said the United States needs to be more aggressive in countering threats, though that doesn’t necessarily mean placing “boots on the ground.”
On Common Core, a set of national education standards opposed by many conservatives, Christie said he has “grave concerns” and has asked state officials to “reexamine” its use in New Jersey’s public schools.
The picture Christie painted of his budgetary triumphs stands in sharp contrast with political reality back in New Jersey. Garden State unions continue to contest his policies in court, and Moody’s Investors Service says the state faces $83 billion in unfunded pension liabilities.
Members of Christie’s political team — including confidant William Palatucci, who watched Christie on Monday from the back of the room — know that the pressure on them to get traction in a field likely to feature a number of self-styled “conservative reformers” is growing by the day.
Last month at a conservative summit in Des Moines, Walker gave a breakout speech that championed his battles with public unions in Wisconsin over collective-bargaining rights. Bush, in a soon-to-be-published e-book, will showcase his push to revamp Florida’s state government.
Christie, who also spoke at that Jan. 24 tea party conclave, was low-key there as well, eschewing red-meat overtures as he talked up his antiabortion position and his state’s programs to assist those dealing with drug addiction.
He met earlier Monday with Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R), who reminded Christie that he has traveled to Iowa 13 times since 2010, often to raise money for Branstad, who was elected to a sixth term last year. Christie will return next month for an agricultural policy summit in Des Moines.
After his remarks, Christie shook hands for about five minutes before telling organizers he had a flight to catch.
“I have no reluctance about being here,” Christie said before ducking into a waiting SUV. “I like Iowa a lot. I’ve always done very well here in terms of the reception I’ve gotten. We’ll see what happens.”
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I can't stand Christie so if you're trying to get under our skin with this...it backfired.
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I can't stand Christie so if you're trying to get under our skin with this...it backfired.
props. Christie is probably the most liberal of all the 2016 potentials.
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props. Christie is probably the most liberal of all the 2016 potentials.
I think Jeb is more liberal
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I think Jeb is more liberal
jeb did some good things for guns, while at the same time giving all the love to the welfare/illegals.
jeb delivered 'stand your ground', castle doctrie extending to cars, etc.
He's bad, he's sickening lib, but Christie is worse. i have a thread here showing how many issues obama/christie are in agreement -
AND DO ALL THE REPUBS FORGET THE WAY CHRISTIE CUDDLED WITH OBAMA on SANDY on the eve of the 2012 election? How quickly repubs forget that...
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jeb did some good things for guns, while at the same time giving all the love to the welfare/illegals.
jeb delivered 'stand your ground', castle doctrie extending to cars, etc.
He's bad, he's sickening lib, but Christie is worse. i have a thread here showing how many issues obama/christie are in agreement -
AND DO ALL THE REPUBS FORGET THE WAY CHRISTIE CUDDLED WITH OBAMA on SANDY on the eve of the 2012 election? How quickly repubs forget that...
What was he supposed to do?
Flip of the president?
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What was he supposed to do?
Flip of the president?
Romney was a coin-flip away from being president. He could have met with romney too.
he clearly dissed romney, half a week before the election.
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Romney was a coin-flip away from being president. He could have met with romney too.
he clearly dissed romney, half a week before the election.
If i recall correctly hurricane Sandy had just hit New York/Jersey and that was the reason for Obama's visit.
Meeting with Romney when your state is in the shitter? Cristie's first obligation is towards the people of his state white house politics should take a backseat in such situations.
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If i recall correctly hurricane Sandy had just hit New York/Jersey and that was the reason for Obama's visit.
Meeting with Romney when your state is in the shitter? Cristie's first obligation is towards the people of his state white house politics should take a backseat in such situations.
romney could have stopped in close, made a statement about what he'll do to ensure the victims aren't forgotten in 2 months when obama leaves office, etc. OR better yet, Christie could have done SOMETHING public for Romeny, just to show people he still backs him.
We all remember it. Christie was obama's lapdog right before the 2012 election - BECAUSE HE WANTED TO RUN IN 2016. Romney wins, and christie cannot run until 2020 - and that's if VP Ryan doesn't get his 8 years.
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Romney for vice president? Not so fast, Christie says
By Matt Arco
CONCORD, N.H. — Gov. Chris Christie is clearing taking concrete steps on a 2016 presidential campaign, but that doesn't mean he has a ticket in mind.
The governor all but laughed off a question tonight about whether he thought former Republican Party presidential nominee Mitt Romney would make a good vice president to run with him in the event Christie officially throws his hat in the ring.
"Listen, the only person who gets to pick a VP candidate is the person who's nominated for president, and I'm not even running yet," Christie said. "So, I think it would be a little too presumptuous of me to start speculating about VP candidates."
The question was tossed at the governor after a reporter asked if Christie and Romney have patched up their personal relationship since Romney recently mulled mounting a third presidential campaign, but later bowed out.
"I disagree with the premise of your question. My relationship with Mitt Romney has always been great," Christie said.
The governor spoke at this year's Concord and Merrimack County GOP Annual Lincoln Reagan Day Dinner.
He told reporters residents in the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state will be seeing a lot more of him in the coming weeks.
Of course, only if he runs for president, he said.
"I'll be here as often as I believe I need to be if I decide to be a candidate," Christie said.
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Critics in G.O.P. Say Chris Christie Is in a ‘Bubble’
By MAGGIE HABERMAN and NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
He does not return phone calls. He does not ask for support. He arrives late for meetings. And he acts as if he has all the time in the world.
The complaints have piled up for weeks, dismaying many longtime supporters of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and sending others into the arms of his rivals for the presidential nomination, according to interviews with more than two dozen Republican donors and strategists.
As a half-dozen other candidates aggressively raise money and chase endorsements in Iowa and New Hampshire, friends and detractors alike say Mr. Christie’s view of his status and pre-eminence within the Republican field is increasingly at odds with the picture outside his inner circle.
Policy advisers, donors and even a prominent New Jersey state senator who met his wife through Mr. Christie have all flirted with or committed to rival candidates. One potential donor, Woody Johnson, the billionaire owner of the New York Jets, will back Jeb Bush, according to three people close to the Bush campaign. Mr. Johnson attended a round of Bush fund-raising events on Wednesday in Chicago, where the former Florida governor acknowledged him by name.
In Iowa and New Hampshire, Mr. Christie’s negative ratings in some opinion polls are higher than his favorable ones. He has been slower than Mr. Bush to lock down support within the Republican Party’s pool of big-name “bundlers,” and it is unclear how quickly Mr. Christie is amassing cash. A spokesman declined to say, or even provide a range for, how much money the governor’s leadership political action committee has raised.
“He’s a very popular figure, but he’s made a mistake by not creating the necessary momentum for the kind of national organization you need to be successful,” said Anthony Scaramucci, a New York hedge fund manager who is now backing Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. “He’s not touching enough people. And I think this is a classic rookie mistake.”
Friends say Mr. Christie is both understaffed and too controlling. They also say he is convinced that his raw talent and charisma can overcome the political obstacles in his way. Thomas H. Kean, a former governor of New Jersey and Mr. Christie’s onetime mentor, with whom he mended fences after a public break, said Mr. Christie had “gotten in the habit of kind of doing everything himself.”
“You can’t do that in a presidential campaign,” Mr. Kean said.
Mr. Christie is hardly without big-name support. In the coming weeks, he will attend fund-raisers around the country hosted by a number of prominent Republicans, including Meg Whitman, the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, and Eric Cantor, the former House majority leader, who is now an investment banker.
“The fact is, there is not a finite pool of donors as some seem to suggest,” said Mike DuHaime, a top adviser to Mr. Christie. “An essential part of Governor Christie’s appeal is his ability to bring new people into the political process, whether they be donors or activists. He has proven this ability time and again in the past, winning handily in a blue state. If he decides to run, it is clear he will have the resources to run an aggressive, winning race.”
Mr. Christie has recruited two former aides to Gov. Terry E. Branstad of Iowa to anchor his team there, and he has received dozens of invitations to speak in that state. His allies also point to their recent fund-raising events in Greenwich, Conn., a wealthy enclave that is home to several of Mr. Bush’s backers.
“Some guys move from Christie to Bush? That’s politics,” said Kenneth G. Langone, a co-founder of Home Depot and Mr. Christie’s leading supporter among New York donors.
Mr. Langone said he had been raising money for Mr. Christie’s new leadership PAC at a healthy clip, with many checks coming from big donors outside of Mr. Christie’s base in New York and New Jersey. “I’ve never had anyone say no,” Mr. Langone said.
The governor and his advisers have dismissed some defections with an air of almost imperious unconcern. Asked about the embrace of Mr. Bush by Mr. Johnson, who has hosted the governor numerous times in his Jets owner’s box, a person close to Mr. Christie brushed it aside by describing Mr. Johnson as a disgruntled team owner who got sweeter subsidies under Mr. Christie’s predecessors.
Some supporters critical of the governor’s campaign blame what they call “the Christie bubble,” a tight-knit circle of advisers who have known him for years and have worked for him through most of his tenure in Trenton. Virtually impenetrable to newcomers, this small group is seen as effective at home but also, now, as shielding him too closely from the realities of a competitive national campaign. Even after the George Washington Bridge lane closings and the resulting scandal, and amid a continuing federal investigation, Mr. Christie has not broadly expanded his inner circle.
Mr. Christie has also alienated onetime supporters by seeming to take them for granted, Mr. Kean said, adding that the thank-you notes, personal meetings and returned calls have been in short supply. “They start to get crabby,” he said.
Other complaints have been more specific: Mr. Christie’s travel schedule is robust, but the message he is delivering about his leadership is not. His recent trade mission to London, meant to compensate for his lack of foreign policy experience, ended in commotion about his position on vaccination. On a recent trip to Iowa, some Republicans said, he spoke mostly about his biography and how frequently he had visited the state, but said little about what he would do if elected.
Some supporters have also blamed “the Christie bubble” for some embarrassing moments for the governor. He told supporters in recent weeks that he was relying on Robert B. Zoellick, the well-regarded former World Bank president, to offer him guidance on global affairs. But by then, Mr. Bush had already made his own overtures to Mr. Zoellick, a longtime ally whose relationship with Mr. Christie was tenuous. In an email, Mr. Zoellick said that in January, he had clearly conveyed that “I could no longer assist Gov. Christie.”
Supporters argue that Mr. Christie won two recent elections in a Democratic state and is connecting with voters and activists in New Hampshire and Iowa in a way that few other candidates have. Mr. Bush, they say, has not faced voters in nearly a decade and a half, and despite his rapid consolidation of the traditional Republican donor establishment, he has made only a few public appearances.
Mr. Christie’s position is notably different from just a few years ago, when prominent Republicans around the country begged him to enter the 2012 race. At least three other major New Jersey donors and fund-raisers long presumed to be in Mr. Christie’s camp have attended or hosted events recently for Mr. Bush or have indicated they will back him, including State Senator Joseph M. Kyrillos, a longtime friend of Mr. Christie.
Mr. Christie is facing an intense challenge on his home turf not only from Mr. Bush but also from Mr. Walker, who is snaring those New York and New Jersey conservative donors who are skeptical of Mr. Bush. A luncheon for Mr. Walker at a Manhattan financial firm on Thursday drew about 30 current and potential supporters.
“People in New York City like winners,” said Jonathan Burkan, a financial services executive who co-hosted the lunch. “The fact that Scott Walker has won three statewide elections in four years is incredibly attractive to everyone.”
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Judge rules Gov. Chris Christie broke state law by not making full pension payments
By Michael A. Fletcher
Problems keep mounting for GOP presidential hopeful Chris Christie. Rivals of the New Jersey governor are poaching some of his homegrown fundraisers, his recent trip to London to burnish his foreign policy credentials was less than dandy, and on Monday, a New Jersey judge landed a blow to the heart of Christie’s political brand: his tough stance against government spending and public employee unions.
New Jersey Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson ruled in favor of the unions that sued Christie, saying that his failure to make full payments to their pension system violated the state’s constitutional obligation to workers. She also ordered Christie to work with the legislature to satisfy the state’s obligation.
The decision came after Christie pushed unions into an agreement that required public employees to sharply increase the amount of money they contribute to their pensions. In exchange, the state promised to increase its contributions to the state’s underfunded retirement system.
The 2011 agreement helped catapult Christie to national attention for his determined stance against what he described as generous public employee benefits that were crippling New Jersey’s finances and contributing to the state’s high taxes.
But Christie decided against making the increased pension payments that were part of the agreement for 2014 and 2015, saying the state could not afford them. That prompted public workers unions to sue.
“We’re happy about this decision, and I have hope now that hundreds of thousands of people in New Jersey will not lose their pensions,” said Hetty Rosenstein, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Communications Workers of America, which represents many state employees.
With New Jersey’s public employee pension system underfunded by as much as $80 billion, the state could find itself unable to pay the full cost of pensions within the next decade if the state government does not live up to the 2011 agreement, Rosenstein said.
Christie promised to appeal the decision. “The Governor will continue to work on a practical solution to New Jersey’s pension and health benefits problems while he appeals this decision to a higher court where we are confident the judgment of New Jersey’s elected officials will be vindicated,” a statement from his office said.
In court, state employees argued that New Jersey could have done more to fund its pension system, including raising taxes.
Christie has repeatedly said raising taxes on millionaires and corporations, as previously offered by Democratic lawmakers, is not an option. What the state will do now to cover the huge pension payments that are due is an open question. Last year, the state held back a $1.6 billion pension fund payment, and this year’s payment was expected to be more than $2.5 billion, union officials said.
Jacobson’s ruling was announced one day before the governor’s annual budget message to state lawmakers. State revenue in New Jersey has been lagging, and its 6.2 percent jobless rate remains higher than the national rate of 5.7 percent.
Meanwhile, Christie’s approval ratings are at their lowest point since he took office in 2010. A recent poll from Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute of Politics found that 37 percent of New Jersey voters viewed him favorably, down seven percentage points since the last poll was conducted two months ago. A majority of voters, 52 percent, disapprove of the job he’s doing as governor.
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Key Christie ally pleads guilty to role in Bridgegate, two others indicted
By Rosalind S. Helderman and Robert Costa
A onetime political ally and former high school classmate of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie pleaded guilty Friday — and two other former members of Christie’s inner circle were indicted — in connection with their roles in an intentional 2013 traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge designed to punish a Christie political opponent.
David Wildstein, who as an official at the Port Authority had ordered the closure of two of the bridge’s toll lanes, confirmed to a federal judge Friday that his goal was political retribution against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, N.J. Mayor Mark Sokolich had declined to endorse the Republican governor’s reelection bid.
Also indicted were Christie’s deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly and William E. Baroni Jr., a top political appointee at the Port Authority. Wildstein told a federal judge Friday that he had conspired with the two to engineer the traffic jam and falsely claim it was part of a traffic study on the bridge.
U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said, based on current evidence available in the case, he did not anticipate further charges related to the traffic jam. However, a federal investigation into other matters sparked by the bridge inquiry continues.
Fishman said the three officials “callously victimized the people of Fort Lee, who were just trying to get to school, go to work, or travel whereever else they needed to go.”
“The laws of the United States do not permit this kind of behavior, and the public has a right to expect better,” he said.
Fishman said the plan was hatched in August 2013, after Sokolich withheld his endorsement, but was not implemented until early September, when the Christie allies knew the start of school would worsen gridlock.
Christie has maintained that he was not given advance warning when two toll lanes of the busy bridge were closed in September 2013. An internal investigation he commissioned cleared Christie of personal wrongdoing in the episode but found that the closure had been purposeful and politically motivated. Fishman refused to comment on those claims.
Fallout from the Bridgegate scandal has significantly deflated Christie’s presidential stock in the Republican Party, which two years ago was soaring after he easily won reelection in a deep blue state and was encouraged to seek the White House by some of the GOP’s biggest donors. In the painful aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, he cultivated an image as a hands-on, can-do chief executive.
A recent Quinnipiac University poll shows 56 percent of New Jersey voters disapproving of Christie’s performance as governor, with 38 percent approving — Christie’s lowest marks ever in that poll.
While the longtime aide’s plea deal implicated only the two other Christie aides, the development could spell trouble for the governor, as it indicates that Wildstein is cooperating with federal officials.
Wildstein’s attorney has said “evidence exists” that Christie knew about the closures, despite his denials. Speaking to reporters outside the U.S. District Court in Newark Friday, Alan Zegas stood by that claim, indicating that “There is a lot more that will come out,” according to the Bergen Record.
As the long-running scandal came to a head in New Jersey, Christie was in the Washington region, delivering a Friday morning speech to the politically powerful Northern Virginia Technology Council in McLean. He had been scheduled to attend an afternoon fundraiser for Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), but that event was canceled as Hogan is dealing with the aftermath of unrest in Baltimore.
A legislative inquiry revealed Wildstein received an e-mail from a deputy chief of staff for Christie indicating that it was “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” the town at the foot of the bridge most affected by the closures. The e-mail exchange, which first suggested that the closure had been orchestrated, parked the 16-month investigation into the incident.
Wildstein pleaded guilty to two criminal counts, misusing federal property and denying Fort Lee residents their civil rights. Baroni and Kelly were each charged with seven felony counts in a joint indictment, including wire fraud.
While the criminal investigation began with the bridge incident, it broadened to include a probe of the activities of the Port Authority and allegations that Christie’s staff had leveraged public resources as political tools in other ways.
Top New Jersey Democrats put the blame for the incident at Christie’s feet.
“Today’s guilty plea makes clear that what the Christie Administration perpetrated on the commuters in Fort Lee was a criminal act,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.) in a statement. “We have an admission that the safety of my constituents was callously jeopardized to inflict political retribution.”
Beyond watching his top-tier status fade in GOP circles, Christie has also seen a loosening of his grip on power in New Jersey — rapidly losing support among a handful of prominent home-state donors and power brokers, who are either hesitant to back him or shifting allegiance to former Florida governor Jeb Bush.
New Jersey state Sen. Joseph M. Kyrillos, chairman of Christie’s 2009 campaign and a longtime personal friend, bolted in late April to Bush’s camp. New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, a onetime Christie booster, attended a major Bush fundraiser in Miami last weekend.
Speaking in March at the state Capitol, Kyrillos blasted Christie’s management of the Port Authority: “Rogue managers in place . . . toll increases: outrageous. Bridgegate: outrageous. Outrageous.” He added, “Biggest bridge in the world. An embarrassment to everybody, including the governor, who said as much at the outset.”
There have been other bumps along the way. Christie’s remarks about child vaccinations on a trip earlier this year to London drew a wave of scathing criticism and alarmed some of his supporters. He had to make a series of calls to assure contributors that he supports vaccination for diseases such as measles. His embrace of wealthy Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and a New York Times report on his penchant for private planes and luxury hotels made headlines.
Embattled but nonetheless determined to rebuild his political standing, Christie has moved aggressively in the past year to regain his footing with party leaders and activists, traveling frequently to early primary states and in 2014 raising more than $100 million for GOP candidates as chairman of the Republican Governors Association.
Christie’s political team, which once envisioned a robust early campaign, has narrowed its focus mostly to New Hampshire, where Christie has held a series of town hall meetings meant to reintroduce him to skeptical Republicans and regenerate some of the electricity that was a hallmark of his town hall meetings in New Jersey in his first term, when his loud clashes with public employees became viral hits on YouTube.
Nationally, Christie still counts several financiers as allies, including Kenneth G. Langone, the billionaire co-founder of Home Depot, and Ray Washburne, a Dallas real estate developer leading the fundraising push for Christie’s political-action committee.
But the traffic snarl has continued to haunt his comeback efforts. In December, he was interviewed by federal investigators at Drumthwacket, the official residence of the New Jersey governor, before he traveled to Iowa, home to the first-in-the-nation Republican presidential caucuses.
That same month, a state legislative panel that probed Christie’s role issued a 136-page summary of its findings, which included no evidence of Christie’s involvement but concluded that two of Christie’s allies created gridlock for political reasons.
While shaking hands at a Manchester, N.H., restaurant this month, Christie was teased by Buck Mercier, 69, who told the governor that he made sure when he heard of Christie’s visit that “the bridges were going to be open.” Christie smiled. “Which direction is the bridge?” he asked. “I’ll make sure it’s open.”
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LOL @ Christie running his team with an iron fist EXCEPT for that one thing which could cost him presidency.
LOL @ anyone still believing him.
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But... but... but... they were friends since high school. :-X
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LOL @ Christie running his team with an iron fist EXCEPT for that one thing which could cost him presidency.
LOL @ anyone still believing him.
You and the rest of the libs set the bar, enjoy it, lol.
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Christie is a pathological liar.
The first time he ran for office he made a TV ad blatantly lying about his opponents and even though the won the election was sued for defamation, required to apologize but clearly he learned that lying works.
http://aattp.org/watch-chris-christies-1994-political-ad-that-earned-him-two-defamation-lawsuits-video/
When he ran for governor he flat out lied to the teachers union and later redacted an open letter to the teachers union from his website - archived copy here: http://www.gofoster.com/images/An%20Open%20Letter%20to%20the%20Teachers%20of%20NJ.htm
The lies just continued during his term as governor - http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/03/jon_stewart_rips_into_christies_deal_with_exxon.html
He is quite possibly a sociopath (which is not uncommon among politicians, ceos, and similar types)
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Christie’s Camp Mobilizes to Salvage White House Hopes
By MICHAEL BARBARO and MAGGIE HABERMAN
Around 7:30 a.m., as an audience of technology executives started streaming through the ballroom doors of a Ritz-Carlton HOTEL in suburban Virginia on Friday, Chris Christie’s IPHONE buzzed with the grim news he has awaited for 16 months.
Federal charges were coming in the bizarre case of traffic and revenge with which he had become synonymous.
Mr. Christie, the governor of New Jersey, consulted with advisers, adjusted his jet-black suit and GAMELY walked onto a stage before 300 guests eating yogurt parfait and almond croissants. He recited statistics about Social Security and Medicare costs and projected the air of a man thoroughly unbothered by the swirling legal drama BACK in New Jersey, which he left unmentioned.
But behind the scenes, his aides, his allies and even his wife were mobilizing, working the phones and blasting out memos to supporters, trying to hold on to whatever chance Mr. Christie had to make a run at the presidency, ACCORDING to interviews.
Over the next few hours, Mary Pat Christie called donors, trying to OFFER reassurance that everything was still on track and encouraging them to read her husband’s speech on overhauling the federal entitlement system.
Mr. Christie himself, JOINED by top aides, reached out to longtime financial supporters, like the billionaires Kenneth Langone and Stanley Druckenmiller, to talk through what he saw as the limited scope of the indictment.
And Mr. Christie’s political action committee emailed talking points for loyal backers to deliver to the news media, framing the guilty plea of David Wildstein, a former Christie ally, and the indictment of the governor’s former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, and his appointee, Bill Baroni, as a moment of vindication.
“Key messages,” the talking points read. “Today’s announcement reinforces what the governor has said since Day 1.” Mr. Christie, they said, “had no knowledge or involvement in the planning, motivation, authorization or execution of the decision to realign lanes on the George Washington Bridge.”
In call after call, they squeezed whatever optimism they could from an ugly day, calling the legal charges the “best possible outcome in a bad situation.”
But amid the bustle, there was an absorption of a new reality for the governor and those closest to him: that his BID for the White House seems increasingly far-fetched. A political team long characterized by its self-assuredness now sounds strikingly subdued, sobered and, realistic about his odds.
In two dozen interviews over the past 24 hours, many of the most trusted allies and advisers to Mr. Christie acknowledged that WINNING the Republican nomination required a domino-like series of stumbles from his rivals and an unlikely breakthrough for him.
They used gentle descriptions like “in a different place” to describe how Mr. Christie had fallen from the high of his re-election in 2013: unpopular at home, limping near the bottom in national Republican polls and lacking the MONEY and momentum of his competitors.
These people spoke on the condition of anonymity, to treat a delicate situation with a LEVEL of candor frowned upon in politics.
Instead of crowing about fund-raising records (as Jeb Bush is) or traveling the COUNTRY as an announced candidate (as Senator Marco Rubio is), Mr. Christie’s team is in a sense starting over now, hoping that the developments in the legal case represent a new chance at a campaign unburdened by the threat of direct legal action against the governor.
Ray Washburne, who oversees fund-raising for Mr. Christie’s political action committee, said there was a sense of relief from potential donors after Friday “that there wasn’t anything else out there” that would directly implicate the governor.
But even those who expressed fewer doubts described a Christie campaign unlike what they had once envisioned — burdened by well-known baggage, focused largely on winning a SINGLE state, New Hampshire, and taking its inspiration from the resurrection of Senator John McCain in 2008.
There are crucial differences, however, between Mr. McCain’s experience in New Hampshire and Mr. Christie’s situation today. Mr. McCain had ALREADYcultivated a base of support from his landslide win there in the 2000 presidential primary. Mr. McCain benefited from a timely issue that he had championed — the surge of American forces into Iraq — that was thrust into the debate as he was mounting his comeback. And, finally, in 2008, there were no flush “super PACs” to keep campaigns alive in New Hampshire, as there will be in 2016.
What’s more, the indictment against Mr. Christie’s onetime associates means months of split-screen television images, with one half showing Mr. Christie out campaigning, the other, the latest report on the legal PROCEEDINGS of his allies.
Mr. Christie has tried to remain outwardly upbeat. But signs of frustration have been spilling out. Over a month ago, ACCORDING to two people familiar with the exchange, Mr. Christie spotted Tim McDonough, an aide to Woody Johnson, the New York Jets owner, during a trip to MetLife Stadium. Mr. Christie told Mr. McDonough that Mr. Johnson, who had supported him as governor but was planning to back Jeb Bush in the presidential race, had shown his “true colors.” Asked about the exchange, an aide to Mr. Christie said his boss had moved on.
His aides say they anticipate he will announce his presidential candidacy in late May or June, but some in the Republican establishment wonder if he will ultimately run.
Even before Friday’s news, Mr. Christie seemed to be facing cemented opposition within his own party. A March Wall Street Journal/NBC poll revealed that 57 percent of Republican primary voters said they could not see themselves supporting him, the highest NUMBER among potential candidates except Donald Trump. Mr. Christie’s campaign aides have declined to say how much money he has raised so far this year; unlike many of his rivals, he appears to lack a prominent wealthy donor prepared, at this point, to sustain a campaign with a multimillion-dollar contribution.
Influential party figures have started to publicly write him off. After Friday’s indictment, Alex Castellanos, who advised Mitt Romney in 2008, summed up the views of Mr. Christie’s detractors: “Now we’ve learned that his political style is contagious. He infected his own government with it.”
But for Mr. Christie, who reluctantly passed up the chance to run for president in 2012, a campaign for the White House may be an irresistible proposition.
Next week, he will head to New Hampshire for a two-day visit, where he is likely to face skeptical questions about the indictment.
Joseph McQuaid, publisher of The Union Leader newspaper in Manchester and a longtime conservative kingmaker in New Hampshire, said the state “OFFERS a gregarious guy like him a chance to overcome the current perception, but it’s a tough climb.”
The indictment against Christie associates “just reinforces the public perception of a Christie credibility gap,” he said.
Mr. McQuaid recalled meeting Mr. Christie and asking him what he learned from the lane closings. He was taken aback by the reply — that Mr. Christie had learned to be less trusting.
“The guy was U.S. attorney and he trusts people?” he said.
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Governor Christie’s People
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
No matter how Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey spins the George Washington Bridge scandal as he eyes a run for president, one thing should be clear: These are his people, charged with a conspiracy to exact revenge against a LOCAL mayor by closing lanes to one of the world’s busiest bridges.
David Wildstein, a Christie associate who once held a top job at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges related to the incident. Two others indicted on Friday for allegedly PARTICIPATING in the scheme were also members of Mr. Christie’s inner circle.
Their BEHAVIOR shows Mr. Christie’s inability to choose employees, to manage them and, most important, to keep them from abusing their power. His failure to do so created a culture that allowed his underlings to bully the mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, by creating a monster traffic jam in 2013 and then lying about it.
While Mr. Christie was in Virginia on Friday morning talking about the need for trust and truth in government, Mr. Wildstein was in federal court in Newark pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit fraud and “conspiracy against civil rights” of residents caught in the traffic jam.
A SHORT time later, Bridget Anne Kelly, Mr. Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, who was the deputy executive director of the Port Authority, were indicted by the United States attorney for New Jersey, Paul Fishman. Ms. Kelly and Mr. Baroni face nine counts, including conspiracy to misuse property receiving federal benefits, commit wire fraud and deprive citizens of civil rights by engineering the traffic nightmare as political payback to Mayor Sokolich for failing to endorse Mr. Christie in his 2013 re-election campaign.
Mr. Wildstein acknowledged in court what many had assumed to be true all along: that he had worked with Mr. Baroni and Ms. Kelly to shut down sections of the bridge, causing huge traffic jams, as an act of political revenge. Mr. Wildstein said that the threesome also AGREED to concoct a phony traffic study as a cover story.
Ms. Kelly read a statement DENYING the charges and calling Mr. Wildstein a liar. She also said that it was “ludicrous” to assume she was the only member of the governor’s staff who knew about the bridge caper. Mr. Baroni denied the charges through his lawyer and also said Mr. Wildstein was lying.
Mr. Fishman said Friday that no further charges were expected concerning the bridge scheme. Still, many important questions are yet to be answered, especially about other suspicious dealings of senior officials at the dysfunctional and patronage-riddled Port Authority. One is whether David Samson, Mr. Christie’s close friend, misused his POSITION as former chairman of the authority for personal or professional gain. In one case, as United Airlines was angling for improvement in its terminal, which is overseen by the authority, the airline began scheduling a FLIGHT from Newark to a city close to Mr. Samson’s weekend home in South Carolina.
Mr. Christie’s response on Friday was to reiterate, on Twitter, an earlier claim that he had “no knowledge or involvement in” the bridge scandal. He recently told journalists in New Hampshire, where he is drumming up support for his implausible, undeclared campaign, that the trouble occurred because he is “too trusting” and too much of a delegator. Mr. Christie can’t slough these problems off on hired hands. They belong to the man in charge.
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David Wildstein looking guilty and skinny! What a difference guilt makes.
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David Wildstein looking guilty and skinny! What a difference guilt makes.
HA!..he has been dieting and lifting..getting himslef ready for jail
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HA!..he has been dieting and lifting..getting himslef ready for jail
Just imagine how much weight Christie would lose if he were prosecuted and found guilty.
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I bet he lost weight as a final FU to Christie
This is how you do it fat man
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Just imagine how much weight Christie would lose if he were prosecuted and found guilty.
LOL...good point......I don't think Christie had anything to do with it directly...but him being a bully and a hardass I think he set up and atmosphere where his people thought it would be ok to do what they did on his behalf
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Ex-Official Says Chris Christie Broke Grand Jury Law
By KATE ZERNIKE
The players at the center of the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal are not finished causing headaches for Gov. Chris Christie.
The latest indication comes in a sworn statement by David Wildstein, a former Port Authority official and the admitted mastermind of the access-lane closings, that describes Mr. Christie breaking the law as he exercised a heavy hand over state politics from the front office.
Mr. Wildstein’s statement, in a civil case separate from the federal prosecution in the bridge case, offers the first insider confirmation of a long-rumored tale of New Jersey political corruption, and places Mr. Christie at the center of it. It also portrays the governor, a former United States attorney, casually revealing information about a grand jury proceeding he had overseen, which violates federal law.
It reinforces nagging doubts about Mr. Christie just as he says he is preparing to make an announcement this month about whether he will seek the Republican nomination for president. Even apart from the potential violation of grand jury laws, the statement reinforces the image of Mr. Christie as an intensely hands-on manager who used the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the George Washington Bridge, to deal with political problems. And Mr. Wildstein, a former political blogger who is known as a pack rat with a long memory, indicated that this may not be the end: His statement says he has emails and further “documents to be produced for inspection.”
A spokesman for Mr. Christie, Kevin Roberts, said on Sunday: “This is just the latest legal jockeying in yet another legal proceeding involving Mr. Wildstein, but one thing should be made clear: Anyone suggesting the governor disclosed grand jury information is either lying or mistaken.”
Mr. Wildstein pleaded guilty last month to federal charges in the lane-closing case in exchange for his cooperation with prosecutors. Mr. Wildstein’s lawyer, Alan L. Zegas, declined to comment on the statement.
The statement is Mr. Wildstein’s response to questions in a lawsuit by Gerard J. Speziale, who was the three-term sheriff in Passaic County when the Port Authority hired him in August 2010 for a $199,000-a-year job.
Mr. Speziale, known as Jerry, a colorful and often controversial former narcotics detective, was so popular in Passaic County that he had raised more than $1 million for his re-election campaign, despite only token opposition.
When he took the job at the Port Authority, he said he wanted to spend more time with his ailing wife, and pledged to donate the $600,000 left in his campaign account to charity.
His fellow Democrats cried foul, noting that it would hurt other Democrats on the ballot and remove his war chest, which could have been used to help other candidates. Calling for a federal investigation, one county freeholder, Bruce James, called it “nothing but a quid pro quo into giving out a government job in order to get somebody out of the race,” according to The Record, a North Jersey newspaper.
Democrats called it the long arm of Mr. Christie, but his office scoffed at that idea.
In the lawsuit, filed against the authority, Mr. Wildstein and several others, Mr. Speziale says he was brought into the job to root out corruption, but was harassed when he tried to reveal it. He ended up leaving for a job in Alabama that paid far less. (He recently returned to Passaic County as the police director in the crime-plagued city of Paterson.)
Mr. Wildstein’s statement, sent to lawyers in the case late Friday, says that in June 2010, Mr. Wildstein met in the governor’s private office with Mr. Christie and others, including Bill Baroni, then his boss and Mr. Christie’s top staff appointee at the Port Authority; Michele Brown, then the governor’s director of appointments; and Richard Bagger, then Mr. Christie’s chief of staff.
At the meeting, Mr. Wildstein says in his statement, Mr. Christie directed the Port Authority officials to fire Arthur Cifelli, who held the double titles of deputy superintendent of the Port Authority Police Department and deputy director of security, and to hire Mr. Speziale in his place.
“Christie told Wildstein and the others that he wanted to get Speziale to drop his re-election bid to help Republicans win the post, and to take Speziale’s campaign war chest,” the statement says.
The governor, according to the statement, told the others that he “would not have Cifelli working for his administration” and that Mr. Cifelli had perjured himself during the grand jury proceedings related to John Lynch, a former State Senate president who had been one of the most influential Democrats in the state.
Mr. Christie told those assembled in his office that he would first have to talk to David Samson, then chairman of the Port Authority board, “since Samson was friends with Cifelli and Lynch,” Mr. Wildstein says.
Under federal law, prosecutors may not identify people who have testified before the grand jury except in extremely limited circumstances, generally restricted to other law enforcement entities or proceedings.
The statement also reveals a list of about 40 people with whom he discussed Mr. Speziale’s hiring, duties and resignation — indicating that Mr. Wildstein was regularly involved in administration conversations, and not the lone-wolf operator that Mr. Christie has described.
That list includes the governor, Mr. Samson, other agency officials and Mr. Christie’s attorney general, chief counsel and several deputy chiefs of staff, as well as Michael Chertoff, the former secretary of Homeland Security, who was brought in to conduct a review of Port Authority security.
(Mr. Chertoff now represents Mr. Samson in a federal investigation surrounding accusations that he used his position on the Port Authority board to enrich himself, including getting United Airlines to reinstate a little-used flight to an airport near his weekend home in South Carolina.)
Under his agreement to cooperate with federal prosecutors, Mr. Wildstein is obligated to be truthful, including in any civil proceedings. He is to be sentenced in the bridge lane case this summer.
Last week, the two former Christie administration officials facing trial in that case — Mr. Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, a former deputy chief of staff — won a small victory when the United States attorney’s office said it would not object to their lawyers’ attempts to subpoena more documents from the law firm the governor hired to do an internal investigation after the scandal exploded in January 2014.
The firm and the administration said that the investigation had exonerated the governor. But members of the governor’s staff said they had been misquoted, or challenged its portrayal of characters and events. And the report left unresolved many contradictions between the accounts of key players.
Defense lawyers say they expect that the subpoena will produce notes showing even more contradictions, reviving questions about what the governor knew, and when, about the lane closings.
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:o
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Bay no likey! :-X
Almost made me vomit!
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Chris Christie’s career takes another hit with ‘Bridgegate’ convictions
By Matt Zapotosky and Amber Phillips
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s political career sustained a serious blow Friday after two of his former allies were found guilty of conspiring to shut down the nation’s busiest bridge to punish a local mayor who refused to support the governor’s reelection bid.
While Christie wasn’t charged in the “Bridgegate” trial, the case produced a steady stream of new allegations against the governor that probably will haunt him as he tries to position himself as a significant player in a potential Donald Trump administration. Christie has been a forceful advocate of the Republican presidential candidate and serves as head of Trump’s transition team.
On the first day of the trial, which began early last month, prosecutors alleged that Christie knew about the plan to tie up traffic on the George Washington Bridge as it was happening. A key witness who admitted his own role in the affair would later testify that when he told Christie about the plot, Christie laughed.
Christie has said that he did not know about the bridge plan and repeated that claim in a statement Friday. The New Jersey governor said he was “saddened” by the choices those close to him made.
“Today’s verdict does not change this for me,” he said. “But let me be clear once again, I had no knowledge prior to or during these lane realignments, and had no role in authorizing them. No believable evidence was presented to contradict that fact. Anything said to the contrary over the past six weeks in court is simply untrue.”
But Christie, once a rising Republican star with aspirations to win the White House, has been stained by the scandal, which suggested a darker side to his tough-guy image.
“It taints his legacy,” said Brigid Harrison, a political science and law professor at Montclair State University. “No one will be able to think about Gov. Christie’s tenure in office without having it be colored by these convictions.”
Christie’s job-approval ratings are already at their lowest point. A Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll released in mid-October found that just 21 percent of residents approved of the job he was doing, down from 26 percent in June. And more than half of voters — 52 percent — said they thought there was “sufficient proof” that Christie was aware of the lane closures and didn’t try to stop them.
William E. Baroni Jr., the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Bridget Kelly, Christie’s former deputy chief of staff for legislative and intergovernmental affairs, were both convicted of all the counts against them, the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey said.
During the trial, the defense for Kelly and Baroni tried to pitch them as Christie’s scapegoats. Prosecutors described them as the governor’s “loyal lieutenants” intent on helping their boss run for president.
In an interview Friday with Fox News’s Bret Baier, Trump was asked whether he still has confidence in Christie. His answer was lukewarm. “Well, I have great confidence in him,” Trump said. “I have not been following the trial. I don’t know really.” He added: “It’ll be interesting to see what happens. But I do like him very much, and I do have confidence in him, and I hope it all works out well for him.”
In the past Trump had been critical of Christie over the matter, saying last December, during the Republican primaries in which the two were rivals: “He totally knew about it.”
It is unlikely that Christie will be charged in the case, unless new evidence were to emerge to help bolster the assertions of witnesses.
Baroni and Kelly were charged with conspiring to misuse Port Authority property by fraud and conspiring to deprive people of their civil rights. The way federal prosecutors told it, the two Christie allies were seeking to punish Mark Sokolich, the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, for refusing to support Christie’s reelection bid. Working with David Wildstein, a former Port Authority executive, they orchestrated a shutdown of the lanes and toll booths on the George Washington Bridge and tried to cover their tracks by claiming that the closures were part of a traffic study.
Wildstein, who pleaded guilty, testified as a witness for prosecutors in the case, claiming that he told Christie what was happening during a 9/11 memorial service, and that Christie laughed.
“We were all very relaxed,” Wildstein testified, according to an account of the trial by the New York Times. The Times said a prosecutor asked Wildstein if he was bragging, and Wildstein responded: “Very much so.”
Kelly said she told Christie of the lane closures before they happened, though she claimed she thought they were part of a legitimate traffic study that needed her boss’s approval.
NJ.com reported that she also said that officials in the governor’s inner circle were aware of what was happening and seemed unconcerned.
“It just wasn’t a big deal,” she said, according to NJ.com.
Attorneys for Kelly and Baroni did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
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Camel toe :-X