Update: Josh Marshall has further details on some things discussed in this diary.
NJ Developers: Build in hell.
So reads my friend’s bumper sticker. In NJ, developers rule. I know many may think Wall Street rules. And for NJ national politics, that may be true. But locally it is the developers.
I believe that the GWB scandal has opened a window that allows us to view a small part of one tentacle of the development octopus that is smothering NJ. In this diary, Teach53 tells us the window has now increased to allow us to see more of the tentacle:
Mayor of Hoboken, Dawn Zimmer claims that the Christie administration told her that Hoboken would get its Sandy funds if she "moved forward with the Rockefeller [development] project".
The connection between the two?The Christie appointed Port Authority Chairman Samson’s law firm, Wolff & Samson, represented a
developer looking to develop the Fort Lee parcel at the foot of the GWB and the Hoboken parcel. Mayor Zimmer and Mayor Sokolich of Fort Lee refused to play and did not award the contracts to Wolff & Samson’s clients. Both got a kick in the butt via the Christie administration and its appointees. Fort Lee got the development-threatening traffic jam. Hoboken received a fraction of the requested money to rebuild a town that was 80% covered by the Hudson River during Sandy.
(more below the squiggle.)
NJ is the most populated state and northern NJ is the most populated part of the state. Developable land is at a premium. Notoriously, pay-to-play is entrenched in NJ. Pay-to-Play means you must pay a campaign contribution to enter the playing field when public contracts are awarded. This was perfectly legal. Many times the line was crossed and “contributions” were a bit more personal. Over the years, reforms have been instituted to limit the practice of play-to-pay. But still,
…local governments have the power to designate former industrial sites as “areas in need of redevelopment,” individual developers usually get those projects. That brings perks that can include the extension of loans, public bond financing, capital grants, assistance with street changes, tax abatements, eminent domain power and preferential zoning changes.”
The money flows to many NJ officials including the “bosses”. This
article profiling the corrupt engineering firm Birdsall can serve as a case study of how contracts are awarded and who gets the money.
…recipients of the secret contributions listed in the records included Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, a Democratic boss in northern New Jersey, groups tied to South Jersey Democratic power broker George Norcross and Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore, Senate President Stephen Sweeney, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, and all of the current Ocean and Monmouth county freeholders.
Records show $900 in personal-check contributions went to the inaugural committee for Republican Gov. Chris Christie and $1,500 to the campaign of his Democratic predecessor, former Gov. Jon Corzine, but both governors publicly disclosed them to the state Election Law Enforcement Commission.
Birdsall is not directly related to the Samson tentacle but is another tentacle of the same octopus and thus is instructive.
Now to our beloved governor, Chris Christie. U S Attorney Christie made his name by investigating and prosecuting politicians, big and small, for violations of pay to play laws. His biggest catch was the conviction of former mayor of Newark, Sharpe James.
The indictment… alleged [Tamika] Riley received the opportunity to buy the city land only because she was James' mistress, and that the mayor ignored his duty to disclose the relationship before signing city contracts to sell her the land. Despite a pledge to rehabilitate the parcels, Riley resold most of them to established developers soon after buying them, netting several hundred thousand dollars.
James and Riley went to jail.
And Chris Christie ran for governor as a good government type and won.
Apparently, the victory marked the end of Christie’s interest in good government. He knows how the game is played and wrote some new rules. Traditionally, in pay to play the private developer shells out cash. The Christie administration, it seems, extended the game to the NJ state government shelling out the goods or inflicting the punishment. This is how fiefdoms are born. I think Christie wanted to become the boss of bosses in NJ. And, thus, propel his way into the White House.
I would continue to look out for Samson's developer involvement. For example, Mayor Fulop of Jersey City has been an early supporter of removing campaign donations from development decisions. He refused to endorse Christie as well. He was named in an email as being at the top of Christie's sh*t list. Is there a Christie/Samson connection here?
Update. Samson again. This time promoting a pipeline though the environmentally protected pine lands. The details are in this diary.