Christie was against no bid contracts before he used them

by: Jason Springer

Sat Jul 11, 2009 at 01:36:00 PM EDT

First Chris Christie was opposed to no-bid contracts as a freeholder:

"Calling it one of his major campaign themes, Morris County freeholder candidate Chris Christie said yesterday that the county should put out to bid all contracts for consultants and professionals"."This is one of the major things I'm running on," said Christie, a 31 year old Mendham Township attorney. "It makes common sense. It's good government. Let the chips fall where they may and get the best people at the best price. That's the freeholders' job." [Daily Record, 2/23/94]

And then he was still staying no-bid contracts were a problem as US Attorney:

"The biggest problem in corruption in New Jersey is no-bid contracts," Christie said during an Asbury Park Press editorial board meeting yesterday. "If you look at all of these cases that we do, they almost always center around no-bid professional contracts." [Asbury Park Press, 11/26/02]

But as US Attorney, he was entering into deferred prosecution agreements, whereby he choose the prosecutor to oversee the agreement, many times an associate without direct experience of the work they were being chosen for, without sending it out to bid. On Tuesday, the Corzine campaign launched their TV ad focusing on 3 of the agreements Christie made as US Attorney. The only response the Christie campaign had was denounce it as a smear, a fact that did not go unnoticed to the Democratic State Committee:

And Christie still refuses to explain how it came to be that only friends of his were the most qualified lawyers out of, literally, over one million lawyers across the country.
And Christie refuses to explain the difference from 15 years ago when he was running for Freeholder . . . and seven years ago when he was United State Attorney . . . and now, when he is running for the most powerful Governor's chair in the entire country.
Christie has not denied a single fact in the ad.
Chris Christie needs to be held to the same standards he holds others, he must be accountable, and he has some serious explaining to do.

I'd expect more denouncing and attacking, but not much explaining. That's been the Christie campaign up until now.

Jason Springer :: Christie was against no bid contracts before he used them