New Christie scandal

[Johnny_L.A]

New Chris Christie Scandal: NJ Gov Gave Pension Fund Billions to Wall Streeters Who Bankrolled His Campaigns

New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie has turned his state’s multi-billion dollar pension fund into a giant political extortion racket, where top employees at 43 different investment firms were given contracts to manage $14 billion in retirement accounts after giving $11.6 million to Republican Party operations that helped elect Christie governor and fueled his rise as chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

This massive “pay-to-play” scheme is illegal under state and federal anti-corruption laws, but those hurdles did not deter Christie and the Republicans from raising the campaign funds and subsequently doling out the lucrative contracts, a two-month investigation tracing this political money train by Pando Daily’s David Sirota has found.

Christie’s staff declined to comment.

Full disclosure: AlterNet does not lean right.

[Fuzzy_wuzzy]

@Johnny_L.A

New Chris Christie Scandal: NJ Gov Gave Pension Fund Billions to Wall Streeters Who Bankrolled His Campaigns

Christie’s staff declined to comment.

Full disclosure: AlterNet does not lean right.

I’ll bite.

Im guessing this story has something to do with this:

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/chris-christie-pension-funds-cut-new-jersey-106900.html

So, we have a pissing contest about the NJ budget and pension proposals. And a “scandal” that just happens to be leaked as thebudget debate kicksoff.

Without knowing too much about the finances of NJ politicians. A few things jumped out at me. One, that contributions to the DNC were not counted. This kinda skews the % of contributions counted as going to Republicans. Its claimed that the DNC has not spent much in New Jersey. Well, I suppose that all depends on what is counted as local NJ spending and what is counted as National spending. Then we have this wording from the law that its claimed has been broken :

"Treasury’s anti-corruption rules bar state officials from offering pension management contracts to a firm if “the investment management firm (or) any investment management professional associated” with the firm makes “

I suppose this largely depends on who or what is a “investment management professional”

I may turn out to be wrong. There may indeed be a scandal here. For now i’ll take this story as mudslinging until further evidence is released. Or at least until some financial/legal egghead can shed further light on the story.

[BrainGlutton]

Paul Rosenberg says put a fork in him!

[BrainGlutton]

David Sirota writes:

According to the Star-Ledger, Christie “said he plans to take $2.43 billion budgeted for the pension fund during this fiscal year and the next one to balance his budgets.” That $2.43 billion is less than the combined $1.5 billion Christie is spending on corporate subsidies and the $1.2 billion the Christie administration spent last year on investment fees. In other words, context shows Christie isn’t being forced to renege on the pension payment; he’s choosing to spend money on corporate subsidies and investment fees rather than on those pension promises.

Why would he make such a choice, you ask? Simply follow the money.

Many of the corporate subsidies are going to companies that just so happen to be big donors to the Republican Governors Association, which Christie now chairs. Likewise, the pension investment fees enrich the Wall Street firms that typically bankroll presidential campaigns.

Together, the firms getting the New Jersey subsidies and the investment fees have far more political campaign cash at their disposal than the public workers whose retirements could be jeopardized by Christie’s pension maneuver. And so Christie is choosing to side with the bigger money.

[Shayna]

@BrainGlutton

David Sirota writes:

When are people going to wake up and realize the Republican Party does not want to cut spending, they only want to cut spending on and take money from middle and poor America and give it to their wealthy donors?

Farm subsidies to wealthy Congresspeople? OK!
Feeding hungry families who are working their fingers to the bone for scraps? No way.

Enormous fees to Wall Street when cheaper alternatives are available? OK!
Honoring pension contracts of government workers? No way.

Unemployment checks going to millionaires? OK!
Unemployment checks extended for working-class Americans? No way.

Low-interest school loans for millionaires? OK!
Low-interest school loans for average Americans? No way.

Subsidizing multibillion-dollar corporations? OK!
Subsidizing working families? No way.

It’s so appalling I want to puke.

[BobLibDem]

What’s even more appalling to me is that there are so many common folk that vote for these reverse Robin Hoods. You’ve got people who are one paycheck away from destitution who will work themselves up into a lather at the idea that the wealthy should be taxed even a tiny bit higher. They’ll vote themselves into financial ruin because they hate abortion or love their guns or fear their kids will be stop being forced to say the pledge. They have the power to make their lot better, if only they would use it.

[Ludovic]

Reporting for move to Cafe Society, wait, nevermind, this is “New Christie scandal”.

[elucidator]

You’re thinking of the new Christie mistrial.

[Kobal2]

@BobLibDem

What’s even more appalling to me is that there are so many common folk that vote for these reverse Robin Hoods.

Hey, give the guy some credit at least. Scamming pension funds out of money and putting it in someone else’s pocket ? That not the traditional Jersey way

[Zakalwe]

@Kobal2

Hey, give the guy some credit at least. Scamming pension funds out of money and putting it in someone else’s pocket ? That not the traditional Jersey way

Sure it is. The money just pauses in that other person’s pocket for a bit before moving on to it’s permanent home in yours (minus a small convenience fee, of course).

[ElvisL1ves]

@elucidator

You’re thinking of the new Christie mistrial.

Or the Julia Louis-Dreyfus show, what was it? The New Adventures of Old Christie, or something like that?

[ElvisL1ves]

Christie tells donors “You’ll get over it.”

Christie replied that he didn’t get to “decide that,” according to accounts from people in the room, but he framed the bridge scandal as a media conspiracy against him after he won 61% of the vote in his gubernatorial race in a Democratic state. His opponents, he said, were trying to prevent him from getting any “more altitude.”

He insisted that he now had a firm command of the facts and that donors would not find out anything new: “Don’t be so nervous,” he said at one point.

“I’m not that worried about it. I hope none of you are worried about it, though I expect some of you are,” Christie told the crowd. “But you’ll get over it. It will be fine.”

Well, I’m relieved to know that. How about you?

[TreacherousCretin]

@elucidator

you’re thinking of the new christie mistrial.

Made me laugh. A+

[BobLibDem]

There’s a NEW new Christie scandal. Maybe we’ll start having to name Christie scaldals like hurricanes.

But the Christie administration relentlessly lobbied to use the money for the Skyway, with Mr. Christie announcing publicly that the state planned to rely on Port Authority funds even before an agreement was reached. Eventually, the authority justified the Skyway repairs by casting the bridge as an access road to the Lincoln Tunnel, even though they are not directly connected.
In bond documents describing the Skyway reconstruction and other repairs, the Port Authority has called the projects “Lincoln Tunnel Access Infrastructure Improvements.”
The accuracy of this characterization is now a major focus of the investigations, according to several people briefed on the matter. Under a New York State law known as the Martin Act, prosecutors can bring felony charges for intentionally deceiving bond holders, without having to prove any intent to defraud or even establish that any fraud occurred.

Get that orange jumpsuit ready for Mr. Christie.

[RTFirefly]

The rapidly metastasizing Christie scandals are rivaling Watergate for both their seriousness and sheer quantity. I’m enjoying the show.

@elucidator

You’re thinking of the new Christie mistrial.

Well played, my friend.

[adaher]

I’ll say the same thing about Christie as Walker: once you get too much smoke, you might as well assume there’s a fire and not nominate him for President. The public is going to be looking for change in 2016. Nominating a guy implicated in that kind of political hijinks sends the opposite message.

I’m still sticking with Bobby Jindal as my favorite. He may not be popular in his home state anymore, but I think he’s done well and will make a fine President.

[Johnny_L.A]

@adaher

I’m still sticking with Bobby Jindal as my favorite. He may not be popular in his home state anymore, but I think he’s done well and will make a fine President.

Only, Conservatives are fond of saying that life begins at conception, and Jindal was conceived in India. So he’s not eligible.

[BobLibDem]

Jindal’s record isn’t so impressive.

Jindal simply hasn’t done much to change the face of Louisiana for the better. He can brag all he wants, but Louisiana still has the nation’s second-highest poverty rate, is first in child poverty, has the fourth-lowest median income and the third-highest rate of residents without health insurance.

As for how he’s recklessly cobbled his budgets with one-time money, ignored and punished the poor, decimated higher education and served as toady to the oil and gas industry - those are topics you’ll never hear Jindal discuss on the stump.

[iiandyiiii]

@adaher

I’m still sticking with Bobby Jindal as my favorite. He may not be popular in his home state anymore, but I think he’s done well and will make a fine President.

Is it his disregard for science, his fundamentalist Christian stance on social issues, or his Norquist-esque tax policy you like best?

[adaher]

His reforming of Louisiana’s corrupt political culture. We need some of that in DC. His jobs record is solid as well. Louisiana has stayed consistently below the national average in unemployment under his watch.