Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), the supposed "team mojo" for the Dallas Cowboys, didn't do much for the team on Sunday when they lost a Superbowl bid to the Green Bay Packers. That's a disappointing loss to Christie, who of course traveled to Wisconsin to watch the game. But the real losers might be New Jersey taxpayers who footed the bill for the governor's security detail. While the
cost to taxpayers of Christie's fan-boy trips around the country to watch the Cowboys hasn't been disclosed, his
security costs for his campaigning nationally are skyrocketing.
The travel costs of state police troopers assigned to protect the governor are 18 times higher than when Christie took office, a New Jersey Watchdog investigation found.
New Jersey spent nearly $1 million on travel expenses for its state police Executive Protection Unit during Christie’s four years and nine months as governor, according to documents obtained under the Open Public Records Act. Last year, Christie traveled out-of-state on more than 100 days while visiting 36 states, Mexico and Canada, primarily on personal and political trips that were not official state business.
The current average monthly travel costs to protect Christie for a single month are 50 percent more than former Gov. Jon Corzine’s entire final year in office, according to state records. For 2009, EPU’s expenses were only $21,704—compared to $32,933 per month for the first three quarters of 2014.
Again, most of the out-of-state trips Christie took were not official business, but were personal and political—many intended to increase his own national visibility before a likely 2016 presidential run. That includes almost $300,000 just in the first three quarters 2014. The details of what the state is on the hook for aren't fully known. The governor's office uses an American Express card for the expenses, then bills the state police for repayment. New Jersey Watchdog, which released this report, is seeking the monthly statements from American Express to detail each of the expenses. But what official records do show the office billing state police as travel expenses are somewhat questionable.
$129,272 for Blackberry smartphone service;
$8,586 for rental of a copier;
$1,505 for drinking water;
$3,552 to repair a security camera for the Drumthwacket gubernatorial mansion in Princeton;
$9,335 for unspecified charges relating to an unofficial trip Christie took to Israel in March 2012; and
$13,650 in transportation costs for Christie’s unofficial trip to Mexico in September 2014
Because of course Gov. Christie isn't going to be drinking any free tap water. The big dreams of Christie clear make for some big spending and, as usual, it's at the expense of the New Jersey taxpayers who he's treating as his presidential campaign funders.