[Update/comment below]
I must say that I am enjoying the media feeding frenzy on the various Christie scandals, and the almost daily expansion in the scope of the abuses that are now finally being disclosed.
I was especially glad to read the expose on how Christie killed NJN TV – but, unfortunately, that story stressed the retaliatory nature of Christie’s decision to kill NJN, and it left out the loss of superb environmental reporting by Ed Rodgers. [I think Christie’s destruction of NJN had far more to do with a desire to avoid independent and critical news coverage than retaliation for coverage during the 2009 campaign.]
Gov. Christie is pleased that Ed is no longer there to hold the Administration accountable for its horrific environmental policy.
And the NJN story was followed by the Hoboken shakedown, which is a particularly egregious abuse and, as Tom Moran editorialized, far worse than Bridgegate.
But, the policy wonk in me is deeply frustrated by the inability of the press corps to connect the scandals to the policy agenda of the Christie administration.
The Hoboken shakedown is not an aberration, it is formal Christie policy.
What happened in Hoboken is consistent with Christie policy and the predictable outcome of the Christie policy agenda and approach to governing – an approach that the Romney VP vetting team called “a Mafia-esque approach to politics”.
The policy framework for the Rockefeller/Hoboken shakedown is this:
1) Executive Orders #2 (“regulatory relief”) and #3 (slash “Red Tape”)
Keep in mind that Hoboken Mayor Zimmer was pressured by Lt. Gov. Guadagno to expedite approval of a Rockefeller development.
Accordingly, planning and regulatory reviews are at the heart of the scandal.
For anyone who has been paying attention for the last 4 years, it is obvious that the Christie administration perceived those planning and regulatory review requirements as useless bureaucratic barriers to economic development.
The Christie administration engaged in an across the board war on so called barriers to economic development, dismissing them with slogans like them “job killing red tape”. Deregulation and privatization were core Christie policy objectives.
Gov. Christie set the policy agenda that led directly to the Hoboken abuse in the first hour of his first day in office, when he issued Executive Order #2 and Executive Order #3.
The Gov. has shown a similar disdain for land use planning and public involvement that the Rockefeller development team perceived as a barrier to their development scheme and windfall profits. For example, Christie killed the former State Plan and replaced it with an economic development strategy.
The Gov. hates all form of government plans and the pointed headed intellectual liberal bureaucratic planners who create them.
The Gov. hates public involvement in decision-making – that just delays corporate investment and profits.
In the Hoboken shakedown, Lt. Gov. Guadagno and DCA Commissioner were simply implementing the Gov.’s policy expressed in those orders and abandonment of any land use planning policy.
2) The role of Lt. Gov. Guadagno as the “Red Tape Czar” in secret business advocacy
Under EO #2 and #3, Lt. Gov. Guadagno was tasked as the Gov.’s “Red Tape Czar” and given extraordinary, non-transparent, and unaccountable powers.
[We are not opportunistic scandal mongers. We warned about exactly the absue we saw in Hoboken 4 years ago, see: Christie Regulatory Czar Given The Power and Tools To Rollback Environmental and Public Health Protections].
She was empowered to meet secretly with business interests and work behind the scenes to promote those interests.
A key role was to pressure state agencies to expedite, streamline, and weaken regulatory reviews –
This is exactly what she was doing in pressuring Mayor Zimmer to expedite Hoboken’s approvals of the Rockefeller project.
The “Red Tape Czar” was doing exactly what the Gov. told her to do and advancing the Gov.’s policy.
3) Perception of Sandy Funds as Ribbon Cutting Promotional opportunties
Early on, it was obvious that Gov. Christie used the Sandy emergency response and recovery process as a political opportunity to promote his personal partisan political interests.
It was not just the “Stronger than the Storm” ad campaign – in the immediate wake of Sandy, the Gov. made scores of media saturated appearances at the shore in his famous fleece. He later followed that up with dozens of ribbon cutting ceremonies and media events to distribute federal Sandy recovery funds.
The press conference and photo op were always more important than the policy or the people in need.
So, the idea of using Sandy money for political advantage was not some wild aberration – as leverage to pressure Hoboken mayor – it was at the core of the Gov. Sandy response.
4) Lack of a post Sandy redevelopment plan
The Christie administration has failed to engage in a transparent planning process, to develop an overall Sandy recovery plan, and despite the Gov.’s repeated pledges, has shown little competence in timely distribution of Sandy recovery funds.
He has refused to even allow his Cabinet members appear at multiple legislative oversight hearings to explain what’s going on.
So, again, the idea of delaying Sandy recovery money as a cost of a hostage taking in Hoboken was not a big deal. Distribution of Sandy recovery funds were delayed throughout the state.
No one would pick up on a few months of delay in Hoboken while the Lt. Gov. shook down the Mayor.
5) massive multibillion dollar corporate subsidies
From the outset, the Christie Administration embarked on a policy of massive corporate subsidies. They provided over $2.1 billion to lure and retain corporations.
Twisting a Mayor’s arm to approve a corporate real estate development is a small act, when you’re willing to give away $2.1 billion taxpayer dollars to get the same result.
If you understand that policy context, none of this is a surprise at all.
It’s Christie engaged in “regulatory relief”, slashing “job killing red tape”; and promoting economic development and the corporate profits of his sponsors.
Its how he rolls.
[Update – readers, my apologies, the comment section is not working. Rob Benjamin submitted the following comment:
Yesterday’s Washington Post article about the pressure that NJ Democratic mayors are under to support Christie or lose what their towns need from the State is a very important corollary to this piece. It adds credibility to Dawn Zimmer’s claims, and diminishes the credibility of her detractors. I noted, as a lot of others have this morning, that Kim Guadagno never said in her statement to the press (not a press conference) that she would, like Mayor Zimmer, take a polygraph.
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