A large part of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s appeal to non-Republican voters has been his reputation as a politician willing to cross party lines for the benefit of his constituents. Nothing cemented that reputation more than his public praise of President Obama during the Hurricane Sandy recovery effort.
Now, adding to his current problems over “bridge-gate,” another brewing scandal, this time about the potential misuse of federal funds appropriated to help New Jersey recover from the devastating storm is threatening to tarnish his reputation of bipartisanship. Once again, this could further endanger Christie’s political prospects on the national stage.
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Most of the country has been focused on potential wrongdoing within the administration of the New Jersey governor for about a week since the news broke that one of Christie’s closest aides helped engineer the politically motivated shutdown of access lanes to the busy George Washington Bridge.
Democrat Frank Pallone, a representative from New Jersey’s 6th congressional district, which includes a number of communities along the Jersey Shore, thinks the governor has more to answer for than bridge-gate. Pallone has been focused on the Christie administration since August when an article in The Asbury Park Press revealed that a multi-million dollar advertising contract for a campaign aimed to increase tourism went to a politically connected firm that charged over $2 million more than other bidders did. The article also noted that the ad campaign pitched by the winning bidder proposed including Christie and his family prominently in the campaign, while the others did not.
On August 8, Pallone sent a letter to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general, David A. Montoya, which said in part:
“Recently released documents relating to the bidding process and contract award for this marketing campaign show that the contract was awarded to a firm that is charging over $2 million more than the next lowest bidder to develop the marketing plan … I am also concerned that the winning bid proposed including Governor Chris Christie in the advertisements, while the lower cost proposal that was not selected did not. As you know, the Governor is running for reelection this year in a high profile race. It is inappropriate for taxpayer-funded dollars that are critical to our state’s recovery from this natural disaster to fund commercials that could potentially benefit a political campaign.”
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Last week, Pallone aide Ray Zaccaro said, the congressman received confirmation from the Inspector General that enough evidence of potential misconduct was found to justify a full-scale investigation.
The investigation, however, which Pallone announced to CNN over the weekend, compounds the current pressure Christie’s office is facing. The New Jersey legislature is expected to begin issuing subpoenas to Christie’s current and former staff members as part of an investigation into the George Washington Bridge closings. A simultaneous federal investigation is likely to further damage the reputation of a man who, barely a week ago, was considered the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.
As many politicians before Christie have learned, once an investigation gets going, there is no telling where it will lead. President Bill Clinton’s administration was bedeviled for years by details that arose from seemingly minor investigations into decades-old investments in Arkansas, otherwise known as Whitewater.
The newspaper article that launched the Christie advertising inquiry contained numerous details about the decision-making process that may well come back to haunt the New Jersey governor. Among other things, the chairman of the committee that selected the ad firm once accepted a $49,000 personal loan from Christie. In a separate article, the paper reported that not long before receiving the contract, the advertising firm hired former key insiders from the New Jersey Republican Party.
Follow Rob Garver on Twitter @rrgarver
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