Report: Christie Officials Hiding Key Details On 'Stronger Than The Storm' Ads
Source: Talking Points Memo
Gov. Chris Christie's (R) office hid crucial details in newly released documents that could shed light on how a firm won a prized contract for an advertising campaign promoting New Jersey tourism in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.
The Asbury Park Press obtained the score sheets from the six members of a panel assigned to choose a firm for the ad campaign, but Christie's office blacked out the names on the sheets. The redactions make it impossible to know whose votes helped East Rutherford, N.J.-based public relations firm MWW land the contract despite the fact that it wasn't the lowest bidder. State officials did not provide a reason for the redactions.
MWW charged the state $2.2 million more than one of its competitors for the bid, leading some to believe that it landed the contract because it proposed giving Christie a starring role in the "Stronger than the Storm" television spots (in an election year, no less). MWW released a statement Monday denying that its proposal mentioned including Christie in the advertisements, contradicting what an executive for the firm said last year.
The person who helmed the panel that awarded the contract to MWW was Michele Brown, who was in the middle of a controversy that surfaced during Christie's 2009 gubernatorial campaign and ultimately led to her resignation as a federal prosecutor. The New York Times reported that Brown was the recipient of a $46,000 loan from Christie that he neglected to report.
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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/christie-sandy-ad-campaign-documents-redactions-hiding-details
Editing to add more on Michele Brown, found via a current TPM story on her past controversies with Christie:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/chris-christie-sandy-funds
Photo of her there.
From that TPM story:
The ad campaign was awarded to the East Rutherford-based public relations firm MWW, which raised eyebrows for two reasons: its reported $4.7 million bid was about $2 million higher more than a competing bidder, which apparently didn't seek to give the Christies the same exposure. And, according to the Asbury Park Press, the woman tapped to lead a six-person panel to award the contract was Michele Brown, a former Christie aide with whom he has a complicated history.
Brown is currently the Christie-appointed chief executive officer of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. She was a top aide to Christie during his tenure as U.S. attorney, a post he held from 2002 to 2008.
In August 2009, while Christie was running for governor, the New York Times reported that in 2007 he had loaned Brown $46,000 without disclosing it in his tax return or other documents. Christie subsequently chalked it up to helping a friend in need and insisted she was in no way helping his campaign. But the Times was skeptical: it spoke with federal law enforcement officials who, the paper reported in October 2009, said she was interceding to handle Christie's opponent's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for travel and expense records of Christie and Brown. The Times reported that the officials, who were not named, suggested she "used her position in two significant and possibly improper ways to try to aid Mr. Christie in his run for governor."
Brown told the Times the allegations were "outrageous and inaccurate," and Christie's campaign reportedly held to its assertion that she wasn't helping. There appears to have been no smoking gun to prove otherwise. She stepped down from her position at the prosecutor's office that summer.
That TPM story links to this 2009 AP story:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/chris_christie_exceeded_federa.html
On trips in 2007 and 2008, his top deputy, Michele Brown, also exceeded the guidelines after Christie approved her requests for rooms in the same five-star hotels where he was booked.
The vouchers show Christie and Brown stayed at the NineZero Hotel in Boston on Oct. 16, 2007 and each billed taxpayers $449 plus taxes and fees for their rooms, more than double the government allowance for a Boston hotel room at the time, according to a General Services Administration travel reimbursement table.
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The former federal prosecutor submitted a waiver for the room in Boston, as required. In it, he requested additional lodging expenses because there were no rooms available at the $203 per night government rate "due to a high demand for rooms."
Christie made a mortgage loan to Brown five days after they returned from Boston, on Oct. 22, 2007. He failed to report the loan on federal ethics forms and on his 2007 federal income tax returns, omissions he later described as a mistake. Brown has since resigned and joined a private law firm.
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= new reply since forum marked as read
Give me those redacted transcripts
Give me those redacted transcripts
They're good enough for me!
They were good enough for Wildstein
They were good enough for Romney
They were good enough for Nixon
They're good enough for me!
Nixon ended up resigning
Nixon ended up resigning
Nixon ended up resigning
They're good enough for me!
But he did avoid impeachment
But he did avoid impeachment
But he did avoid impeachment
They're good enough for me!
So give me those redacted transcripts
Give me those redacted transcripts
Give me those redacted transcripts
They're good enough for me!
rocktivity
