Was he asked to endorse Christie or not? And why is he equivocating on the answer? The New York Times reported yesterday that he was asked for an endorsement but he told Wolf Blitzer on CNN last week that he didn't recall a specific endorsement request. Christie also said at his press conference that he never sought Sokolich's endorsement. I've been wondering what's up with that?
From my reading of the documents and based on Sokolich's recent statements in the press, I believe his equivocation is based on a continuing fear of retaliation by Team Christie. I also suspect there's more to it than that.
His initial appeal to Bill Baroni at the Port Authority (during the traffic debacle) asked whether the lane closures were punitive. He wondered if he was being punished for something and gave a few potential reasons for it; not just the non-endorsement. Later on he walked back some of his statements and appeared to play along with cover-up just to stay out of trouble and keep a low profile.
As we all know, Sokolich was taken completely by surprise by the closure of traffic lanes Sept. 9-12th on the GWB and the resulting gridlock in his city. His desperate calls to the Port Authority to get relief went unanswered. "Radio silence", as Wildstein put it.
Here's what happened after that...
On Sept. 12th Sokolich wrote a letter stamped "PERSONAL" to "The Honorable Bill Baroni" at the Port Authority, asking him to reverse this decision "quietly, uneventfully, and without political fanfare".
He continues to say, "try as we may to understand its rationale without the benefit of a response from the Port Authority, we are reaching the conclusion that there are punitive overtones associated with this initiative. What other conclusion could we possibly reach?
Please call me as soon as possible in the hopes that we can resolve this issue and reverse the policy change that is wreaking havoc on Fort Lee .... the otherwise cooperative and supportive host community to the busiest bridge in the world." (Exhibit A, p. 648)
On Sept. 13th the "Road Warrior" columnist, John Cichowski, picks up the story:
Closed Tollbooths a Commuting Disaster. Note how the reporter floats the rumor about the housing development near the bridge as a potential reason for retaliation. It was being talked about way back then.
Sokolich, who is Fort Lee's mayor, seemed even more perplexed than his police chief or the angry commuters who were jamming his borough hall telephone line.
"I've asked the Port for an explanation, but they haven't responded," said the Democrat. "I thought we had a good relationship. Now I'm beginning to wonder if there's something I did wrong. Am I being sent some sort of message?"
When dealing with the Port Authority, the bi-state monolith that has been accused of hiding its political rationales for hiking tolls, hiring cronies and nearly giving away the naming rights to one of its biggest assets, it doesn't take much to get the rumor mill going. The Road Warrior phone was ringing all Thursday afternoon with equal numbers of calls from road-weary bridge commuters and conspiracy theorists who insisted that the Port was punishing Sokolich – either for failing to endorse Governor Christie's election bid or for pushing through a $500 million, 47-story high-rise housing development near the bridge, or for failing to support the Port's last toll hike.
Sept. 17th Sokolich sends a text to Baroni. He wants to know if he was being punished and is having a tough time dispelling the rumors in the media. (Exhibit A, p. 753)
That same day...
Ted Mann and Heather Haddon, WSJ
Amid the controversy there was even speculation that the closures could be retribution for Mr. Sokolich's decision not to endorse Mr. Christie in his re-election bid in November. The Christie campaign has received endorsements from at least 48 elected Democrats across the state, including 17 mayors. Mr. Sokolich said he had a good relationship with the Christie administration and couldn't imagine he would be important enough for the campaign to punish him for not publicly endorsing Mr. Christie. The mayor said he was supporting Democratic Sen. Barbara Buono, Mr. Christie's challenger. "I've always been incredibly supportive of Gov. Christie even in the face of people criticizing me for it. I find it incomprehensible that there's any truth whatsoever to these rumors," he said. Kevin Roberts, a spokesman for the Christie campaign, said that any notion that Mr. Sokolich faced retribution for not endorsing the governor was "crazy."
From here on Sokolich adopts the "rumors and conspiracy theories" talking points and begins to walk back the punishment angle.
October 1st Ted Mann, WSJ
Mayor Sokolich said he hasn't received answers to his request for information about why the authority ordered the closures. Still, the mayor said he was a supporter of many of Mr. Christie's policies, and didn't believe that the closures were intended to punish him, a theory he said had been the subject of "rumors."
October 2nd
Abbott Koloff, The Record
Sokolich, a Democrat, told The Record last month that he was “beginning to wonder if there’s something I did wrong. Am I being sent some sort of message?” On Wednesday, he said he doesn’t believe the closures had anything to do with him, and that someone at the Port Authority simply made a “dumb mistake.”
He rejected speculation that someone in the agency was punishing him for something — such as failing to support Governor Christie’s reelection campaign or favoring a high-rise development near the bridge.
“I do not believe any of those conspiracy theories,” he said. “I don’t view myself as being important enough… This is not a Fort Lee issue. It affected probably 30 other towns.”
October 3rd,
WCBS News segment:
Initially, a port authority statement claimed the lane closures were part of a traffic pattern study.
As WCBS 880′s Sean Adams reported, some Bergen County Democrats don’t buy it and think this could be some sort of political payback.
But Fort Lee’s mayor, a Democrat, told Adams he doesn’t buy into those conspiracy theories.
October 17th,
Ted Mann and Heather Haddon, WSJ appear to have sources stating that there was an endorsement request:
In Bergen County political circles, people familiar with the matter said the closures were seen as a gesture from Gov. Chris Christie's appointees at the Port Authority to Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat who had been asked - two weeks before the closures - to endorse Mr, Christie's reelection.
Mr. Sokolich has since softened that opinion, and told The Journal at the end of September that the notion that the closures were punitive was simply "rumors."
November 7th,
Ted Mann, WSJ
People familiar with the matter and some local officials believe it wasn't what the Port Authority originally suggested: a lane closure to allow for a study of traffic patterns. Instead, they believe it was a gesture aimed at the borough's Democratic mayor, who had declined to cross party lines to endorse Mr. Christie for governor two weeks earlier.
The mayor, Mark Sokolich, said he believed the intent was "punitive" in a letter sent to Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni, Mr. Wildstein's boss, asking for relief from the traffic jam in September. Mr. Sokolich has since backed away from that assertion, and declined to elaborate this week.
November 14th,
...mum's the Word on GWB Lane Closures, Steve Strunsky, Star Ledger
Democratic lawmakers, including those at Wednesday’s meeting, said the letter reinforced suspicions the lane closings were in retaliation for Sokolich’s failure to endorse Republican Gov. Chris Christie for re-election. Christie’s office says the governor had nothing to do with the closings, and Sokolich said in a brief interview Wednesday he did not believe the closures were retaliatory.
Subsequently, Sokolich was invited to testify in front of the NJ Assembly Transportation Committee but
kept his mouth shut declined to appear.
November 25th Ted Mann, WSJ
Afterward, Ms. Stender said she still suspected the lane closures had been the result not of a traffic study, as the authority initially said and as Mr. Baroni insisted Monday. Rather, she suspected the move was a show of political muscle toward the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, who was asked and declined to endorse Mr. Baroni’s political patron, Gov. Chris Christie, for reelection, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Sokolich suggested that the closures were “punitive” in a private letter to Mr. Baroni in September, but has since recanted. He was invited to testify but did not attend Monday’s hearing.
Fast forward to January 2014 when the documents start coming out...
January 8th, an angry Mark Sokolich appears on Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, CNN (video at link). This is where he says that he doesn't "recall a specific request to endorse" Gov. Christie and he's also scared about future retribution.
As reported by New York Magazine. The Fort Lee mayor says he doesn't even recall a specific endorsement request, but he didn't want to back Christie for a variety of reasons (like having different political beliefs, for starters). "I'm grateful to my instincts because they certainly have proven me to be correct," he said.
Sokolich called for those responsible for the lane closure to be removed from power, so they can't "cause this type of damage to other unsuspecting communities." "I was always scared about what would happen to Fort Lee when you stop reporting on this, Wolf, and all the other media channels stop reporting on it three months, six months, a year from now," said Sokolich. "Who’s to say what they’re going to do to my borough, to my residents, to my citizens and to me?" It almost sounds paranoid, but if this is how they react to losing an insignificant political endorsement, maybe we don't want to find out what happens if a scandal dashes their presidential hopes.
January 9th, Christie's marathon press conference. Christie says he has never even met Sokolich and did not seek his endorsement. (Becket Adams, The Blaze)
Christie maintained Thursday that he knew nothing of the alleged plot that many believe was meant to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for refusing to endorse the governor against Democratic challenger Barbara Buono. Christie said he never sought Sokolich’s endorsement and Sokolich said Wednesday he didn’t recall the governor’s office ever asking for one.
“I don’t remember ever meeting Mayor Sokolich,” Christie said. “I’m sure I met him at some point in an event in Bergen County, but I have to tell you, until I saw his picture last night on television, I wouldn’t have been able to pick him out of a lineup.”
“And so part of this is — the reason that the retribution idea never came into my head is because I never even knew that we were pursuing his endorsement, and no one ever came to me to get me to try to pursue the endorsement in any way, so I never saw it as a serious effort,” Christie added, referring to why he didn’t doubt his aides when they told him they knew nothing of the Fort Lee lane closures.
After the press conference, Christie made an
unwelcome visit to Ft. Lee to apologize to Sokolich and the citizens of the township. Sokolich made him promise that it wouldn't happen again.
But the governor “respectfully insisted,” Mr. Sokolich said after Mr. Christie departed. During his 40 minutes inside the borough hall, the governor apologized and promised that traffic in the town would not be tied up intentionally again, Mr. Sokolich said.
Mr. Sokolich said what he had wanted more than an apology from the governor was a promise that there would be no repeat occurrence. “We were unconditionally, unequivocally provided with that assurance,” he said, as members of the borough’s council looked on.
Good to see that on the record.
January 12th, N.R. Kleinfeld, NY Times. In this article Sokolich now remembers being solicited for an endorsement.
One day last spring, though, he was the person asked to give. A member of Gov. Chris Christie’s re-election campaign staff came calling to see if Mr. Sokolich, a Democrat, would endorse the governor, a Republican. There was scant doubt that Mr. Christie would win. But his ambition was to win big. He joked that he wanted to eclipse the landslide record held by his mentor, former Gov. Thomas H. Kean, who prevailed by 40 points in 1985. His advisers hoped to demonstrate such broad support that Mr. Christie would become his party’s logical presidential candidate in 2016. The campaign vigorously courted Democratic officials and notified reporters of fresh conquests.
He chewed it over with local council members and two objections arose: It would be rude to State Senator Barbara Buono, the Democratic candidate for governor, and they were miffed at Mr. Christie for his decision to spend millions of dollars to hold a special election to fill New Jersey’s vacant United States Senate seat three weeks before Election Day.
And so the mayor let the request go. “I never called and said no, I never called and said yes,” said Mr. Sokolich, who would not name the official who had reached out to him. “I think they interpreted my response to that conversation to be a no.”
Wait, what? The request was made as early as "last spring"? The Mayor discussed it with local council members? (I'm guessing these are the "people familiar with the matter" that WSJ reporter Ted Mann referenced in October.) Seems like a lot of people know about this non-endorsement and we'll be finding out soon who it was that came calling.
As it stands today, I'm still a bit confused by Sokolich's behavior. Why was he trying to deflect attention from the retribution "rumors" and why didn't he recall being asked for his endorsement just last week? Either he really is/was scared of additional retribution and traffic tie-ups and/or... maybe he is getting some quid pro quo. The latter is pure speculation on my part. Perhaps, once the story started to grow legs he offered to dispel the rumors in exchange for some "projects" or other favors to come his way. (NOTE: Added "Perhaps" to the beginning of this sentence, i.e. I'm still speculating here)
Whatever funny business is going on, I wish good luck to Mayor Sokolich and the people of Ft. Lee. If Christie manages to skate through this scandal, you may be in for a bumpy ride ahead.