Will Goodwin join Democrats calling on Christie slush fund group to release donors too?

by: Jason Springer

Thu Jul 08, 2010 at 10:30:00 AM EDT

Yesterday, State Party Chairman John Wisniewski held a press conference following up on his initial calls to have the secret group supporting Chris Christie's property tax plan release their donors. Here is video from the press conference:

The State party laid out a pretty good case for the ties that require a further look:

You've heard of 'Six degrees of Separation', in this case there are zero degrees of separation from Governor Christie, Minority Leaders Kean and DeCroce and this supposed 'issue advocacy' group.
1. Christie's top political advisor is on the 'advisory board'
2. Their treasurer, a Governor's appointee to the Turnpike Authority, is the campaign treasurer for Chris Christie, Senate Minority Leader Kean, and Assembly Minority Leader DeCroce amongst others.
3. The address and phone number listed on their website are the same as the top Republican fundraising firm in the state which works for the Republican State Committee, the Senate Republican Majority and the Assembly Republican Majority
4. The chief strategist for the Christie / Guadagno campaign is their spokesperson
5. Governor Christie was the only keynote speaker at the only event supporting Reform Jersey Now
These are direct ties between the statewide Republican apparatus, and this shadow group which is nothing but a front for the Republican Party to raise unlimited, unregulated contributions from anyone it wants.

Joining Chairman Wisniewski in the call for openness was Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein. Her opponent for the 14th District Senate seat Tom Goodwin was hopping on the pay to play bandwagon yesterday as well, focusing on recommendations recently announced by ELEC:

"The days of backroom deals are over and a new day of government transparency has finally arrived," said Goodwin. "I commend ELEC for proposing these common sense reforms that will give residents the assurance to know that the professional politicians can no longer trade contracts for campaign cash."

Goodwin says ethics will be a central component of his race. I think there is no place like the Christie front group to begin with that additional transparency he wants so bad. It's also the transparency Christie ran on, yet has failed to deliver at every turn.

Jason Springer :: Will Goodwin join Democrats calling on Christie slush fund group to release donors too?