Christie Scandals Piling Up: Feds Investigate “Stronger Than The Storm”
ThinkProgress reports the Feds are investigating Chris Christie over his “stronger than the storm” ads from last year:
The Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has opened a federal investigation into whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) improperly used Hurricane Sandy relief funds to produce commercials starring himself and his family ahead of his re-election campaign. Auditors will examine how the Christie administration used $25 million set aside for “a marketing campaign to promote the Jersey Shore and encourage tourism,” focusing on the bidding process to award a $4.7 million to a politically connected firm that cast Christie and his family in the Sandy ads, while “a comparable firm proposed billing the state $2.5 million for similar work” but did not include Christie in the commercials.
There’d been some rumblings about this problem in the fall, but they disappeared beneath the tidal wave that was Christie’s candidacy. With the governor already mired in scandal, though, he’ll be more vulnerable to old kerfuffles rearing their ugly heads again.
Meanwhile: Fox 29 reports that New Jersey legislators are going to convene in special session over Gov. Chris Christie’s Bridgegate scandal.
Some lawmakers suggest what happened could be considered an impeachable offense.
“If it becomes known that the governor was involved, and he knew about it, and knew about the cover-up, and he was approving his actions made by his senior staff, that raises serious questions the assembly ought to look at,” said Assemblyman John Wisniewski (Dem.-Sayreville).
“The reality of it is that this is a very, very serious black eye that will damage him not just with the voters but also with campaign contributors.”
Polls suggest more than half of Jersey residents think Christie should resign if evidence emerges that he directly was involved witht the traffic closure on the George Washington Bridge last summer.
