By Carl Golden
Rarely has a possible legislative override of a gubernatorial veto been as fraught with political implications as that involving Gov. Christie’s rejection of legislation to revise and reform the operations of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Entering his sixth year in office, Christie has run the table in having his…
Posted: January 20th, 2015 | Author: admin | Filed under: 2016 Presidential Politics, Chris Christie, New Jersey, NJ GOP, NJ Senate Republicans, NJ State Legislature, Opinion | Tags: Gov Chris Christie, Opinion, Port Authority of NY/NJ, Port Authority reform, Veto Overide | 5 Comments »
TRENTON — Federal prosecutors interviewed Gov. Chris Christie last month as part of the ongoing investigation into the George Washington Bridge lane closure controversy, according to a published report. The governor, who’s weighing a presidential campaign, met with prosecutors and the FBI for more than two hours, according to ABC news. The meeting took place at…
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MMM photo by Art Gallagher
Federal prosecutors have widened their investigation into the relationship between Governor Chris Christie’s office and his 2013 reelection campaign, according to a report at The Wall Street Journal.
WSJ reports that U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman’s office has subpoenaed documents related to government meetings that Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop claims were canceled after he declined to endorse Christie’s reelection.
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Posted: January 8th, 2015 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Bridgegate, Chris Christie, Paul Fishman, Port Authority, U.S. Attorney | Tags: Bridgegate, Chris Christie, Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, Mark Sokolich, Port Authority, Port Authority of NY/NJ, Steve Fulop, U.S., U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, Wall Street Journal, WSJ | 1 Comment »
Jim McGreevey is Governor Christie’s Ethical Compass?
Govenor Chris Christie at his Belmar Town Hall on July 31. Photo by Art Gallagher
In the summer of 2004, U.S. Attorney Chris Christie had Governor Jim McGreevey on the ropes. McGreevey was “State Official #1,” an unindicted co-conspirator in a pay for play scheme that nabbed Democratic fund-raiser David D’Amiano. A few weeks later McGreevey was resigning, purportedly because he was a “Gay American” who gave his boyfriend an important homeland security job that he wasn’t qualified to perform.
Yesterday, a decade later, Governor Christie is hanging his hat, and his orange sweater, on a McGreevey Executive Order that exempts the Governor from New Jersey’s ethics laws against accepting gifts.
Chris Christie marched into Trenton promising to turn the place upside down. Five years later McGreevey is Christie’s ethical compass. Not the man McGreevey has become over the last 10 years. Christie’s ethical compass is the man he investigated and probably could have indicted and convicted. To paraphrase Christie on the stump for Mitt Romney two years ago, something got turned upside down in Trenton, but it wasn’t the culture of government that Christie promised he would impact and overturn.
About the best thing we can say about Christie accepting gifts of travel on private jets and seats in owner’s boxes at NFL games is at least it was family friendly entertainment with the cameras running, unlike the alleged entertainment U.S. Senator Bob Menendez flew off to on a friend’s private jet.
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Posted: January 6th, 2015 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2016 Presidential Politics, Chris Christie, Opinion, Reform Agenda | Tags: 2016 Presidential politics, Chris Christie, Ethical Compass, ethics, Jerry Jones, Jim McGreevey, New Jersey, Opinion, Port Authority, Port Authority of NY/NJ, Reform Agenda, Steve Adubato, Turning Trenton Upside Down | 20 Comments »
Less than two years before Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones paid for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s tickets and travel to NFL games, government documents show Christie personally pushed the Port Authority to approve a lucrative contract for a firm part-owned by Jones. Christie nonetheless accepted the gifts from Jones, despite New Jersey ethics rules barring…
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In a press statement, New Jersey Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto of Secaucus blasts New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for vetoing legislation aimed at reforming the Port Authority. “These vetoes are terribly disappointing news for the people of New Jersey and New York, especially the commuters who get stung by toll…
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TRENTON — The former chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has dropped his lawsuit against New Jersey’s state ethics commission. Court documents show David Samson filed paperwork dropping the suit in U.S. District Court on Wednesday. His decision was first reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Phone calls to Samson’s lawyers were…
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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo released and endorsed a report issued by the Bi-State Panel on the Future of the Port Authority which calls for reforms to the agency that the governors called “comprehensive and wholesale changes” in a joint statement this evening.
In accepting the report by the panel comprised of three current commissioners of the Port Authority and the chief counsels of each governor, Christie and Cuomo said they are reorganizing the overall operations, leadership and management of the multi-billion dollar organization. They said that the reorganization will “return the Port Authority fully to its original mission – developing and maintaining the world’s largest transportation system and infrastructure.”
Additionally, the governors each vetoed identical legislation approved by the New York and New Jersey Legislatures which calls for increased transparency of the Port Authority. The governors said they “accept and endorse the transparency legislation” “but with some sensible changes to eliminate confusion that would be caused by the bill as currently drafted.” The changes are included in Christie’s Conditional Veto message to the New Jersey Legislature. New York’s governor does not have conditional veto powers.
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Posted: December 27th, 2014 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Andrew Cuomo, Chris Christie, New Jersey, New York, News, Port Authority | Tags: Andrew Cuomo, Chris Christie, Governor Andrew Cuomo, Governor Chris Christie, Port Authority, Port Authority of NY/NJ, Reforms | 3 Comments »
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Two lawsuits filed by people stuck in traffic jams caused by last year’s lane closings at the George Washington Bridge will move forward without Gov. Chris Christie as a defendant. A federal judge this week consolidated the two cases into one. Among the claims in the suits filed earlier this year are…
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TRENTON — David Samson, the former chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, filed a federal lawsuit Monday seeking to head off a state ethics probe of his work at the bi-state agency. Samson and his law firm sued the New Jersey State Ethics Commission in U.S. District Court, claiming it does…
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