Port Authority won’t say if auto braking system is operational on PATH

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Guadagno Cleared Of Hoboken Mayor’s Charges

Lt. Gov Kim Guadagno, center, with former Monmouth County Clerk M. Claire French, right and Sui Allex, a Marlboro GOP Council candidate, at the launch of the We Care About NJ PAC on Tuesday evening.

Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno has been cleared by U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman in the allegations against her made by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer, according to a report at NJ.com.

After months of praising the Christie Administration after Superstorm Sandy, Zimmer used the media frenzy when the Bridgegate story broke in January of 2014 to become famous by alleging that Guadagno shook her down seven months earlier.

The mayor said that Guadagno told her, on behalf of Governor Christie, that Hoboken’s Sandy recovery aide was tied to Zimmer pushing through a development application for the Rockefeller Group.  The shakedown allegedly happened at a supermarket ribbon cutting ceremony in May of 2013.  Zimmer suddenly remembered the shakedown in January of 2014 when the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal was dominating the news.

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Patrick Murray is emphatic that his next poll will be negative for Christie

By Art Gallagher, [email protected]

UPDATE 4:15PM:  Murray says Magyar/NJSpotlight mischaracterised his analysis.  Read the next chapter here.

Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray already knows that his next poll about Bridgegate and the Mastro Report, will have an negative outcome for Governor Chris Christie.

Murray is quoted by Mark Magyar in a NJSpotlight piece posted this morning saying emphatically that his next poll will have negative results.

“The Mastro report raised more questions than it answered about what is going on in the Christie administration,” Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, noted. “Now, the release of the memos has raised even more questions, including questions about the credibility of the Mastro report itself.”

Murray said he could not imagine what Christie and his top advisers were thinking when they settled on their current legal and political strategy. “Every time they put something out, they undercut their credibility,” he said. “Everything they do provides fodder that keeps this investigation alive and keeps this story alive. The report was overly protective of the governor, and now everyone is looking through the memos to see what the report left out. Nothing gets settled, everything looks worse.”

A Quinnipiac Poll released last week showed that 56 percent of New Jerseyans regarded the report as a “whitewash” and only 36 percent believed it to be a “legitimate investigation.” Even more ominously, 65 percent of voters knew of the Hoboken case, and 57 percent of that group believe Zimmer’s allegation that the Christie administration improperly withheld Sandy aid from her city because she refused to support the Rockefeller Group development.

Murray said he expected to see similar results in his next Monmouth Poll. “It will be negative. This is not going to be positive,” Murray stated emphatically, asserting that the controversy over the Mastro report clearly resonated with voters. “The question now with Christie is, ‘Have we hit a floor where a certain percentage of people will defend him no matter what, and everyone else will attack him?’”  (emphasis added)

 

Murray enjoys a well-earned reputation for producing polls that most accurately match the results of elections in New Jersey.  However, his declaration of a poll’s results before he’s asked a question raises serious questions about his credibility as a political scientist and the perceived “independence” of his analysis.

In fairness I should point out that it is possible that Murray already conducted his survey and hasn’t reported the results yet.

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Christie scandal: Hoboken mayor’s claims ‘demonstrably false,’ internal report says

Christie scandal: Hoboken mayor’s claims ‘demonstrably false,’ internal report says (via NJ.com)

An internal investigation conducted by lawyers working for Gov. Chris Christie’s office found no evidence to support claims his top people tried to strong-arm Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer into approving a development project, according to a report released…

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Analysis: U.S. Attorney’s Trail Shows Hoboken Charges More Serious

Analysis: U.S. Attorney’s Trail Shows Hoboken Charges More Serious (via NJSpotlight)

With subpoenaed documents trickling in to investigators and a third Christie appointee taking the Fifth Amendment, legal experts are debating which charges Christie appointees are likely to face, how evidence of a coverup could bolster a corruption…

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Samson Loses Rockefeller Group’s Business

David Samson

The real estate developer at the heart of Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer’s allegations against the Christie Administration has fired it’s law firm, Wolf and Samson, according to a report in the New York Times.

The law firm is led by Port Authority of NY/NJ Chairman David Samson, a former NJ Attorney General.  Samson, who has been subpoenaed by the legislative committee investigating the George Washington Bridge lane closures that have dominated the state and national political news this month and put Governor Christie’s presidential prospects in jeopardy, appears to be a central figure in both the Hoboken and George Washington Bridge controversies.

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The Zimmer Fibber Timeline

By Matt Rooney, SaveJersey.com

Having trouble keeping track of the Bridgegate sideshow going on in Hoboken, Save Jerseyans?

Fear not; we’ve put together a streamlined timeline for you to consult/post/share and, once you’ve reviewed it from beginning to end, I don’t think you’ll conclude that the chronology is flattering for Hoboken’s Mayor:

___________

Winter 2010 to Fall 2012

Mayor Dawn Zimmer is only one year into her new job when she decides to endorse the Governor’s property tax cap. She’s backed other major initiatives since then.

October 2012

Hurricane Sandy strikes New Jersey and floods much of Hoboken.

November 2012

Over the next year and change, Zimmer repeatedly — both online and in the real world, too — praises Chris Christie for his Sandy aftermath assistance without qualification:

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Zimmer testified that she does not keep a diary

HudsonCountyTV.com is reporting that attorney Louis Zayas of North Bergen claims that Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer testified under oath during a deposition that she does not keep a diary, calendar or memo pad to help her remember events that occur in the city she governs.

Zimmer claimed on MSNBC’s Up with Steve Kornacki last Saturday that Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno told her that Sandy Relief money was contingent on the approval of a proposed Rockefeller Group development.  Zimmer offered Kornacki her diary to support her claims against Guadagno and says she has since turned the diary over to the U.S. Attorney.

Zayas, the attorney who won a $440,000 award discrimination lawsuit against Hoboken last month said at the time that the jury in that case did not believe Zimmer’s testimony. Zayas is currently suing Zimmer and her husband, Stan Grossbard, on behalf of Carmelo Garcia, the head of the Hoboken Housing Authority and a New Jersey State Assemblyman representing Hoboken, for alleged  racial discrimination and “ethnic cleansing.”

Zayas keeps a framed photograph of himself and Governor Chris Christie on prominent display in his law office, as can be seen in this HudsonCountyTV video.

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Zimmer says Feds told her to stop talking, Declines to take lie detector

Graphic courtesy of Hoboken411.com

Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer said the U.S. Attorney’s Office has asked her to stop talking about her allegations that top officials in the Christie Administration told her that Sandy Relief money was contingent upon her approving a development for the Rockefeller Group, according to HudsonCountyTV.

“The US Attorney’s office has asked that we do not conduct additional media interviews and we are respecting their request. I stand by my previous statements and remain willing to testify under oath about all of the facts in this case.”

How convenient.

The U.S. Attorney’s office has not confirmed that they made such a request, or that they have even met with Zimmer.

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Guadagno, Ferzan Dispute Hoboken Mayor’s Allegations About Sandy Funds

Guadagno, Ferzan Dispute Hoboken Mayor’s Allegations About Sandy Funds (via NJSpotlight)

The Christie administration moved quickly on Monday to dispute allegations by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer that they tied the release of Sandy recovery funds to her approval of a Hoboken real estate project proposed by the Rockefeller Group and represented…

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