Christie Doesn't Want Anybody Looking In To....

[Laxman]

well frankly lots of things, but this time its his "arrangement" with Charlie Baker to manage billions in NJ pension funds. A $10,000 donation to the RGA (or in this instance, the NJ State Republican Committee) seems to be the standard initiation fee to get in on the Republican looting of the public treasury-and Mr. Baker paid up. Yes another Christie post, but this is as much about Massachusetts as it is about New Jersey-the details of the dirty little agreement between Christie and Baker regarding management of NJ's pension funds should be of particular interest to Bay Staters worried about the race between Baker and Martha Coakley.

Chris Christie Blocks Release Of Pay-To-Play Probe Of Charlie Baker, Massachusetts GOP Nominee

As chairman of the Republican Governors Association, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has helped Charlie Baker with millions of dollars worth of ads supporting his Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign. But that's not the only way he may be boosting the GOP candidate in the final weeks of a close election: Christie officials are blocking the release of the findings of New Jersey's pay-to-play investigation into Baker.

The documents being withheld pertain to an investigation of Baker's $10,000 contribution to the New Jersey Republican State Committee. The contributions came just months before Christie officials gave Baker's company, General Catalyst, a contract to manage New Jersey pension money. New Jersey's pay-to-play rules prohibit contributions to state parties from "any investment management professional associated" with a firm managing state pension money.

When the campaign donations and subsequent pension contract came to light in May, Democrats criticized Baker, who was then launching his 2014 campaign for governor of Massachusetts. In response, New Jersey launched a formal investigation into Baker's contributions. The Newark Star-Ledger reported at the time that Christie officials "said the review would take several weeks."

Five months later, with Baker now neck-and-neck in the polls with Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley and backed by more than $5 million from the Christie-led RGA, Christie officials have denied an open records request for the findings of the investigation.

read the rest here: http://www.ibtimes.com/chris-christie-blocks-release-pay-play-probe-charlie-baker-massachusetts-gop-nominee-1708016

[Historic NY]

1. People are talking in NJ about his smoke and mirrors...

they are catching on especially those who thought he'd fix things. As per conversations with some pubic pension employee's this past weekend. They are beginning to see they have sunk further and further into the abyss.

[Rod Beauvex]

2. And the kicker is...

...they'll still vote for the next Republican that claims they will fix this mess the liberals created.

[Historic NY]

3. Actually it was a Republican Governor Christie Todd Whitman that started it..

<This is best illustrated by Mrs. Whitman's decision to withhold billions of dollars that should be going into the public employee pension funds over the next few years, and using the bulk of that money to balance the state budget. Then, with an audacity that dazzles her supporters and even draws grudging admiration from opponents, Mrs. Whitman smiles and characterizes the withheld funds as savings.>

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/22/opinion/in-america-whitman-steals-the-future.html


Withholding the money and taking the payments small government made for their employee's has made the problem worst. Some small towns now can't keep up and pay in after years of the money they sent being used elsewhere.

[Beach Rat]

4. Every time you turn around its something else!

Isn't this the kind of stuff that the Solomon Dwek sting was about? I give you a donation and you make sure I'm treated right! It's ok when Christie is on the receiving end of the donation. I guess $10,000 is a reasonable commission to pay for the millions in business this guy got.

[Laxman]

5. Who Else Has Been Paying Their Dues...

in the club? Other than the law firm that wrote Christie's exoneration report, the guy from Blackstone who got his own chunk of pension funds, the fellas down at the U.S. Attorney's office who got cushy jobs with the Christie administration, Ash Britt (of the no-bid Sandy contract fame) and countless other hogs at the trough?

The most recent filings from the Internal Revenue Service, released Wednesday evening, show that Wal-mart ($375,000), Altria ($102,233) and the National Rifle Association ($135,000) have all given significant
sums this year. Private investment firms are big donors, with ETC Capital in Michigan supplying $2.5 million alone. Christie also benefited from New Jersey sources, like pharmaceutical companies based in the Garden State along with engineering, law and lobbying firms that work with government and often donate to New Jersey politicians.

The two companies that run New Jersey's lottery system after Christie privatized it last year — GTech and Scientific Games — gave a combined $100,000. And Ashbritt, which Christie hired last year for a no-bid Sandy clean-up controversy, triggering much controversy, also donated $100,000.

Christie also got significant sums from two men who had lobbied Christie to get into the 2012 presidential race — New York hedge fund manager Paul Singer ($1.35 million) and Iowa hog-and-ethanol baron Bruce Rastetter ($20,000).

read more here: http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/14/10/16/chris-christie-s-millions#

I guess Sheldon Adelson, who contributed $100,000 to the RGA must actually own Christie. What a great pet!