Grandstanding

by: Scott Weingart

Thu Aug 06, 2009 at 12:10:35 PM EDT

Yesterday, Chris Christie rolled out his ethics platform at a campaign event in Paramus. While many of the ideas Christie proposes are good ones, in particular a full ban on dual officeholding and a statewide pay-to-play ban that would apply to local as well as state government, none of them are particularly new. Perhaps that's why Christie decided to take a shot at Jon Corzine during the event, accusing the governor of "grandstanding" for speaking out against mayors who were rounded up in the recent corruption sting. Christie would know something about grandstanding, given that he spent the previous afternoon courting the support of a powerful Hudson County political boss who has fought against every plank of Christie's ethics platform. Oh, the HypoChristie!

Tuesday afternoon, Christie walked around Union City shaking hands with voters and posing for pictures with Mayor-cum-State Senator Brian Stack, a Democrat who has not yet endorsed a candidate for governor. Christie hopes he can win the support of Stack's powerful Union City political machine, or at least convince Stack not to mobilize support for Governor Corzine in November. While Stack hasn't yet been charged with any corruption-related offenses, he perhaps better than anyone else embodies the systemic problems with government in New Jersey. In 2007, Stack was able to move up from the Assembly to the Senate despite a recently-passed dual-officeholding ban, because the law contained a grandfather clause specifically crafted to let him make the jump. In the last three years, Stack and his political action committee, Union City First, have accepted nearly $140,000 in contributions from businesses that have contracts worth a total of some $27 million with city or regional government entities.The Record recently reported that Stack's PAC took $4,000 from an FBI undercover company linked with Solomon Dwek.

This isn't the first time during the campaign that Christie has palled around with a dual-officeholder. In April, he attended a fundraiser for Ocean County Clerk Carl Block's mayoral re-election campaign in Stafford. Block lost his local office, despite Christie's help.

The Glass House Express stops in Union City en route to Christie's ethics speech in Paramus. Grandstanding? It's OK if you're a Republican. Dual officeholding? It's OK if you're a Republican—or a Democrat thinking of endorsing one.

Scott Weingart :: Grandstanding

Tags: Brian Stack, Chris Christie, Jon Corzine, dual officeholding, (All Tags)

Print Friendly View

Send As Email

Grandstanding | 1 comments

Don't forget (0.00 / 0)

That he also said if you have one public job you should not recieve your salary for your elected office. Christie's runningmate teaches at Rutgers and still collects her salary as Sheriff.

The christie camp only said she would resign if they won. Of course because it would be impossible to do otherwise.

by: honestNJdem @ Thu Aug 06, 2009 at 17:33:32 PM UTC