General Discussion

highplainsdem

(48,957 posts) Wed Jan 29, 2014, 11:12 AM Jan 2014

Great NYT piece on Christie's micromanagement: For Christie, Politics Team Kept a Focus on Two Bids

Great analysis by the Times of how much micromanaging Christie was doing, including having his staff create "tabbed and color-coded dossiers on the mayors of each town — who their friends and enemies were, the policies and projects that were dear to them." And all the while Christie was careful to make it harder to trace what he was doing:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/nyregion/for-christie-politics-team-kept-a-focus-on-two-bids.html

Commissioners recalled that they were instructed by the front office how to rule. Legislators accustomed to asking questions directly of cabinet members or commissioners were told that they had to go through the governor’s office instead.

Mr. Christie himself tended to the smallest of details. He personally oversaw appointments to the State Board of Physical Therapy Examiners, legislative leaders said, and when he wanted to discuss something with lawmakers, he texted them himself. (He told one top legislator that he had learned from his experience as United States attorney not to email; texts were harder to trace.)

-snip-

The State House team met briefly every morning, perhaps for 20 minutes, for a quick overview of the day’s issues and what was being reported, with the governor joining in person or on the phone. Since his days as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, many people said, he preferred to use his cellphone or to meet, rather than to communicate by email or conference call.

For longer, more strategic meetings, the group decamped to Drumthwacket, the governor’s ceremonial house in nearby Princeton, where they would often be joined by Mr. Christie’s chief political strategists, Mike DuHaime and William J. Palatucci. Political meetings were often around the Christie family’s kitchen table in Mendham, where the governor’s younger brother, Todd, would join.

-snip-

Re Todd Christie -- the Bergen Record published a story yesterday (which I posted in LBN last night) about how he profited from the Port Authority spending more than a quarter billion on a station near properties he'd recently bought and sold after the Port Authority decision made the properties much more valuable.