Tag: hoboken

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bridgegate Domestic Policies News Politics

Christie Forecast: Cloudy With a Chance of Falling Sky

Forget about rain, snow, sleet, freezing rain or any other objects that might be falling down over the next few days in New Jersey. The real forecast is that the sky is falling on Governor Chris Christie and he has little time, and no room for error, if he wants to regain his reputation as a bully leader anytime soon.

The problem isn’t that he’s an able politician, because he is whether you disagree with him or not, or that he can get the Democrats to sign on to what will be his signature accomplishment, which was to raid public employees’ pockets and blame them for the recession enact a pension and benefits bill that made public employees pay more for their pensions and benefits (discovered the strike through key, didn’t I? OK, I’ll stop).

No, the problem with Chris Christie is that his style finally caught up to him. He is a big guy with a big personality who doesn’t suffer people whom he considers fools very patiently. Now his main personal strategy has him gasping for clean political air, which is usually in short supply in this state, and it’s choking him.

The latest example is a memo the Governor’s Office released in response to former Port Authority official and main player in the GW Bridge traffic scandal, David Wildstein, who said that he had evidence, still unreleased, that shows Christie knowing about the lane closings as they happened. That contrasts with what the governor told the public at his two hour news conference after the scandal broke.

Now, I understand that both parties play the blame game and the strategy has always been that if you’re accused of something to deny it, either truthfully or to stonewall and hope the investigation shows nothing, and to attack your opponents. This memo, though, is officially in the Hall of Fame for its vacuous and lame attempt at slurring Wildstein. From the article:

The memo listed five incidents as evidence, saying that “as a 16-year-old kid,” Mr. Wildstein had sued over a school board election; that he had been “publicly accused by his high school social studies teacher of deceptive behavior”; that he had a controversial tenure as mayor of Livingston, N.J.; that he had been an anonymous blogger; and that he “had a strange habit of registering web addresses for other people’s names without telling them.”

I’m assuming that you’ve stopped laughing.

Suing over a school board election? Doesn’t that qualify you to be in the  He-Man Government Hater’s Club? What about being accused of deceptive behavior in social studies class? As a social studies teacher, I now have ultimate political power over most of the approximately 2,500 students who have sat in my classes over the years. Can’t wait for some of them to run for office. Controversial politician? Like you, Governor? Anonymous blogger? Not anymore.

In sum, the governor has bupkis on this guy. If he did, he would have released it weeks ago and would have gone on the offensive as he did in most other cases. If he wanted to play hardball, he would have offered to pay Wildstein’s legal fees so he could defend himself without having to out Christie with what they both know is true. Firing Wildstein, and former Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly,  has now opened the governor to all kinds of problems, because those people are now trying to save their lives. Some of what they say will be wrong, but much of it will be true. And Christie knows that.

The Bridge is not the only problem the governor has because there are reports that he didn’t implement the reconstruction aid program from Sandy until a full 10 months after the money was delivered to NJ. My sense is that this is going to be a bigger problem than lane closures. That was done for political payback; stalling aid to people whose houses were now in the Atlantic is far worse.

And pundits said the President had a rough fifth year. Christie’s win in 2013 will be his final election victory.

For more please go to:
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bridgegate Politics

New NBC/WSJ Poll – It’s Not Looking Good For Chris Christie

Chris Christie’s political future looks to be in serious danger with more Americans believing the embattled New Jersey governor is lying about the bridge closure scandal than telling the truth, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.  Christie’s overall standing has taken a major hit in the survey, with just 22 percent of Americans viewing the Republican New Jersey governor favorably — down from 33 percent in October.

Twenty-nine percent now view Christie unfavorably, versus 17 percent a few months ago.

NBC News and our partners at NowThisNews break down the main facts surrounding the Chris Christie bridge controversy.

Christie has denied ordering or knowing anything about the traffic jam-inducing George Washington Bridge lane closures, but 44 percent believe that Christie mostly is not telling the truth. By comparison, 42 percent say he’s mostly telling the truth.

That’s a significant shift from an NBC/Marist poll taken earlier this month, when 44 percent of respondents said he was mostly telling the truth (compared to 33 percent who said he wasn’t).

The governor is also dealing with a second allegation – that his administration threatened to hold up Hurricane Sandy relief aid to Hoboken unless the Democratic mayor supported a private development project.

Christie, who was recently considered a front-runner for the 2016 presidential nomination, has a lot of work to do to make up ground if he decides to run.

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bridgegate Politics

Yet Another Chris Christie Scandal – Abuse of Power Allegations

In the post-Bridgegate world, charges of Gov. Chris Christie’s political bullying have gained more credibility. It’s like when one woman accuses a public figure of sexual harassment, inspiring several others to come forward too.

In the wake of the revelations that Christie’s allies toyed with traffic at the George Washington Bridge, apparently to punish a mayor who failed to endorse him, we heard new allegations from Dawn Zimmer — the Hoboken mayor who says his officials threatened to withhold Sandy aid unless she supported his favored real estate project.

And now, we are reminded of the accusations of Ben Barlyn, a former Hunterdon County prosecutor who says he was fired because he refused to drop a case against a Christie ally. For the past year, he’s been striving to prove his story, paying through the nose for a civil lawsuit against the state while telling it to anyone who will listen.

Barlyn says that after he secured an indictment in 2010 against Hunterdon County Sheriff Deborah Trout, a Republican with political ties to Christie, he was fired and the case hastily killed by Christie’s appointed attorney general at the time, Paula Dow. The real story isn’t the mundane crimes that were alleged: hiring without proper background checks, making employees sign loyalty oaths, threatening critics and producing fake police badges for a prominent Christie donor. It’s the possible abuse of power by the administration’s head prosecutor.

Barlyn is now trying to compel the state Attorney General’s Office to release the grand jury transcripts to prove his case had legs.

He’s not the only one who says so: Four grand jurors and other dismissed prosecutors have come forward to agree. A judge even ordered the release of the transcripts — yet still, the state is refusing to comply. It has filed a torrent of briefs in an effort to suppress the grand jury record, and will continue this fight at a hearing Tuesday.

More NJ.com

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bridgegate Domestic Policies Education News Politics

NJ State of Emergency (and it’s not the snow)

Chris Christie was inaugurated for his second term as Governor of New Jersey today. It’s also snowing quite a bit. That will make his downhill slide easier and the crash at the bottom more pronounced. He’s embroiled in two scandals, both of which will turn out to have been his own making, and he made a state of the state address last week that was so devoid of usable ideas, it’s probably DOA in a Democratic legislature that is in no mood to compromise with him over controversial issues.

The Bridge issue by itself could probably be chalked up to election year hi-jinx by a guy who doesn’t understand nuance and positive energy. Now we have another scandal that cuts even deeper and shows a pattern of behavior among Governor Christie’s appointees and running mate that could touch him. The results will not be pretty.

The story involves aid for Sandy storm victims, but is tied up in election year politics and the desire Christie had to win a huge, forty-point plus victory over Democrat Barbara Buono this past November.

His administration chose an ad agency to promote the shore using Sandy funds, which might be OK except that the agency it chose cost $2.2 million dollars more that the other bidder and promised to put Christie and his family in the ads. Not bad in an election year where about the only issue Christie could run on, because the economy was still in a shambles, was Sandy relief. That makes the Hoboken issue that much more relevant, because the city really could have used any or all of those millions to, let’s say, help people who were flooded out or needed assistance with programs that might help them get back on their feet. Instead, we get the first-ever Lieutenant Governor making threats against a Christie supporter, Mayor Dawn Zimmer, to help a political friend.

New Jersey is already an ethical sewer. Did Christie and Guadagno really have to flush at that moment?

 Christie’s office did offer a rebuke to Mayor Zimmer, but never addressed the accusations against Guadagno and attacked MSNBC, the network that’s been the main mouthpiece for the story. That’s classic Christie and follows the larger Republican strategy when they’re challenged: discredit the opposition and call them names. Ouch.

But now Mayor Zimmer is talking with prosecutors at their request. Double ouch.

There will be more subpeonas and an occasional leak of juicy information and the result will be a prolonged period of stalemate where the governor wants to move beyond the scandals and the legislature wants to air every stitch of dirty laundry to lessen Christie’s influence.

As for policy, last week’s speech in Trenton wasn’t just a rehashing of his fight with teachers and other public unions: it was a renewed call to battle against them by proposing to take more of their income and break their power. The governor wants everyone else to contribute more for their pensions and health benefits, which would severely impact those middle class workers, while he works on a tax break for the wealthy and reneges on his promise to make full state pension payments.

That idea would be bad enough, but the real insight into Christie’s thinking is his not-even-half-baked proposal to lengthen the public school day and year. His lack of detail was stunning for such a high-profile pronouncement. Clearly, he’s going through the motions of checking off ideas from the conservative playbook in an effort to curry favor with the Republican right wing. Needless to say, reaction has not been positive, and for good reason.

First of all, where is the money coming from to install air conditioning and run electrical power for the rest of June and into July? Where is the money coming from to pay teachers past June 30? What will happen to shore businesses, camps, academic programs and enrichment activities that are a vital part of summer in New Jersey? Yes, the governor rightly said that the school calendar is outdated, but other industries have grown around it that are vital cogs in the economic and academic life of students and teachers. He hasn’t addressed that, and my guess is that he probably won’t. He’ll just spend time bashing teachers for not wanting to give up summer vacation, even though the summer is just another two months where most teachers need to find an income so they can eat or not lose their houses.

Chris Christie only knows one speed when it comes to doing his job, and it’s going to result in a crackup. A comeback is certainly possible, but the damage has been done.

For more please go to:
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Politics

Hoboken’s Mayor Dawn Zimmer Turns Over Documents to U.S Attorney

Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer turned over her journal and other documents to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Sunday, which she says show Governor Christie’s administration threatened to withhold Superstorm Sandy aid if she didn’t approve a development.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said the office does not discuss publicly its meetings and would not confirm whether the office is investigating Zimmer’s allegations.

The mayor released a statement saying she met with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark for several hours at their request and turned over the journal entry she cited as proof of her conversations with Guadagno and Constable.

“As they pursue this investigation, I will provide any requested information and testify under oath about the facts of what happened when the Lieutenant Governor came to Hoboken and told me that Sandy aid would be contingent on moving forward with a private development project,” Zimmer said in a statement.

The administration has denied Zimmer’s allegations.

Zimmer went on MSNBC Saturday and accused Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and Richard Constable, the commissioner of the state Department of Community of Affairs, of telling her they would not be able to help the city if she didn’t approve a real estate project in the northern end of the city.

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Politics

The Name of the Iceberg that Sank ‘The Chris Christie’ is Called Hoboken

Last week, I touched on this subject in a post called, Hoboken Could Make Bridge-Gate Look Like Small Potatoes. The point of the piece was based on some reporting by Chris Hayes showing Chris Christie’s lack of interaction with the city – a city ravished by hurricane Sandy – due to political retribution against Hoboken’s mayor, Dawn Zimmer.

Today, MSNBC’S Steve Kornacki took Christie’s new Hoboken scandal to a whole new level. Bringing Hoboken’s mayor on as a guest, Steve showed just how deep Chris Christie’s retaliation against the mayor and the people if Hoboken went.

Breaking the Campaign Finance Laws, bribery, political retribution, holding back federal relief funds, it’s all part of how business is done under the Christie administration and it’s all illegal. This piece by Steve shows that.

Steve Kornacki explains:

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chris hayes Politics

Hoboken Can Make Christie’s BridgeGate Look Like Small Potatoes

Chris Christie is presently embroiled in a huge scandal in New Jersey. The scandal, affectionately dubbed BridgeGate, is big enough to oust Christie if the claims that he had something to do with the lanes closure, turns out to be true. But BridgeGate is a small potato compared to what Christie did in Hoboken.

New Jersey got billions from the Federal Government to help the state recover from the Hurricane Sandy devastation. One of the cities that suffered was Hoboken and Chris Christie promised the people of the city that he would do whatever he can to help them recover. But when Hoboken’s mayor refused to endorse Christie’s re-election, Christie refused to help the people of Hoboken.

If it is determined that the people of Hoboken did not get the recovery funds allotted to them from the federal government because of Christie’s political retribution, then this could be a criminal act.

Chris Christie was in the middle of a reelection campaign. In this country, there is a law that governs campaign finance and all indications are that Chris Christie violated the campaign finance law when he took federal funds and distributed those funds based on political endorsements. That’s against the law.

You you cannot bribe someone to endorse you. Federal funds, intended to offer relief to those affected by a federally declared natural disaster, cannot be doled out to your political buddies or your endorsers alone, and when Christie shortchanged Hoboken because the mayor of that city chose not to endorse him, that’s a form of bribery using federal relief funds, and that’s against the law.

Hayes explains more about Hoboken.

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