NJ Gov. Christie's office denies claims of withholding Sandy aid funds
In an interview with CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer said that she was approached about the commercial development project by Kim Guadagno, Christie's lieutenant governor, at an event this past May.
"The lieutenant governor pulled me aside and said, essentially, 'You've got to move forward with the Rockefeller project. This project is really important to the governor.' And she said that she had been with him on Friday night and that this was a direct message from the governor," Zimmer recalled Guadagno saying.
Christie's office denied the claim later Sunday, with spokesman Colin Reed saying "Mayor Zimmer's categorization about her conversation in Hoboken is categorically false."
Zimmer told the Star-Ledger that she had met with federal prosecutors Sunday and given them a copy of her daily journal and other documents related to the case. Zimmer also said that she would be willing to testify under oath regarding the allegations. Christie's administration is already under investigation over traffic jams on the George Washington Bridge last September that were apparently manufactured as political retaliation.
Zimmer had alleged Saturday that Guadagno and a top community development official told her recovery funds would flow to her city if she allowed the project to move forward. The Democratic mayor said the Republican administration officials wanted Rockefeller's plans for the property approved, while Zimmer said she preferred to go through normal channels and hear from all stakeholders, including the public and owners of adjacent property.
"I was directly told by the lieutenant governor — she made it very clear — that the Rockefeller project needed to move forward or they wouldn't be able to help me," Zimmer told The Associated Press.
"There is no way I could ethically do what the governor, through the lieutenant governor, is asking me to do," she said.
Christie's office called Zimmer’s statements politically motivated, with Reed Colin Reed saying the administration has been helping Hoboken secure assistance since Sandy struck.
"It's very clear partisan politics are at play here, as Democratic mayors with a political ax to grind come out of the woodwork and try to get their faces on television,” Reed said.
Reed also bashed MSNBC, which first reported Zimmer’s comments.
“MSNBC is a partisan network that has been openly hostile to Gov. Christie and almost gleeful in their efforts attacking him, even taking the unprecedented step of producing and airing a nearly three-minute attack ad against him this week,” he added.
A state website that tracks the distribution of Sandy aid shows that Hoboken received a $200,000 post-storm planning grant in October out of a $1.8 billion pot of money controlled by the state. Hoboken also received a $142,000 state energy resilience grant.
Besides state money, Hoboken has received $70 million in recovery funds distributed by the federal government, according to the Christie administration. Zimmer said she has applied for $100 million to implement a comprehensive plan to help insulate her city from future floods.
