opinion

INGLE: Christie becoming a national embarrassment

TRENTON — New Jersey always has been a national laughingstock for its ethically challenged politicians. You’d think by now embarrassment alone would have been sufficient to force lawmakers to close gaps in ethics rules.

It was bad enough Gov. Christie acted like a 4-year-old at a birthday party when he joined Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in celebrating a playoff victory over Detroit, but it turned out that poor reflection on the Garden State was not the biggest reason for concern.

Ignore the criticism that a governor of New Jersey should love a team that has a Philadelphia or New York name. That’s provincial and which team he roots for is his business. He has been one of Dallas’ better known cheerleaders for a long time.

It’s how he came to be sitting in the billionaire owner’s box in Texas that is raising eyebrows and for good reason. Jones flew Christie and his family to the game in a private jet and put them in his luxury box. It apparently wasn’t the only time.

That’s a little darker, especially for Christie, who crafted an image of himself as a friend of the little guy and squeaky clean. You can bet the only little guys in that box with him were the ones serving food and drinks.

But it gets worse. The Wall Street Journal reported Christie’s benefactor Jones was part of an ownership group chosen by Christie and Christie’s New York counterpart, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to operate a facility on the observation deck at One World Trade Center.

One World is owned mostly by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the political patronage dump that operates the George Washington Bridge, the same outfit that gave us “Bridgegate,” which is now under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark.

International Business Times reported Christie and Cuomo issued a press release on March 19, 2013, announcing their selection of Legends Hospitality LLC to operate the observation deck. “The next day, the Port Authority board — which is appointed by Christie and Cuomo — specifically cited the governors’ announcement in voting to approve the contract for the company, which is jointly owned by the Dallas Cowboys, New York Yankees and Checketts Partners Investment Fund.”

From what we have learned about the Port Authority swamp so far, the legislatures of New Jersey and New York felt Port Authority reform was past due. They passed bills and sent the proposals to the governors. Christie and Cuomo said they would veto it, no doubt reluctant to relinquish control of a wonderful place to stash their political friends.

Christie created an ethics advisory panel by executive order and staffed it with two allies. The panel was left vacant when the governor appointed them to other jobs. John Degnan was named by Christie to be chairman of the Port Authority. Incidentally, Degnan says the bidding for the deck operation was fair and square. Richard Mroz left when Christie appointed him president of the Board of Public Utilities.

After reporters questioned the vacancies, my colleague Bob Jordan reported two more Christie allies had been named without any prior announcement. They are Peter Verniero, a former state Supreme Court justice, and Thomas Calcagni, the former director of the state Division of Consumer Affairs.

State ethics laws allow Christie to take gifts from personal friends, according to Susana E. Guerrero, executive director of the state’s ethics commission, a Christie appointee who also worked in the governor’s office and at his former law firm.

Is that stupid or what? When you’re a governor wanting to be president lots of people will become your personal friend. Conveniently, there is no definition of “personal friend.” The Legislature needs to pass a law and limit the value of gifts to like $25 since the loophole in Christie’s executive order is big enough to fly one of those private jets he covets through.

This stinks on so many levels, especially from a governor who as U.S. Attorney cautioned public officials not to accept gifts.

He said he will go to Green Bay for the game Sunday. Let’s see if he sits in the cold bleachers with the regular folks he claims to identify with or in the warm and cozy luxury box with the fat cats and “personal friends.”

Bob Ingle is senior New Jersey political columnist. He can be reached via e-mail at bingle@app.com. @bobingle99.