Just came across
this little item in the New Jersey Governor's race.
It's complicated, but the short version is that if you give
someone a no-bid contract for work and then you run for a federal
office, you can't take campaign contributions from them. The same
is true for state office.
But there's no law that says you can't take a STATE contribution
from someone you gave a FEDERAL no bid contract to. And that's
exactly what Chris Christie, the GOP favorite to get the nod to
take on Jon Corzine in the Fall has done. As U.S. Attorney,
Christie gave the firm of Stern and Kilcullen a 7 million dollar
no-bid contract. Now that Christie's running for Governor, the
partners and their wives contributed $23,800 to Christie's
campaign. Since New Jersey has 2-1 matching funds, it's more like
they gave him over $70,000.
While this is not illegal, it sure looks terrible, especially
when you consider that Christie has based his entire campaign on
ethics and cleaning up New Jersey. If Steve Lonegan is smart,
he'll take this story and try to turn Christie's strength on
ethics into a weakness. If that happens, Lonegan might just be
able to change this GOP Primary from a coronation into a fist
fight.
