Like a lot of people here I found Steve Kornacki interview with Dawn Zimmer extremely interesting link
I wanted to simply accept it as true but forced myself to be skeptical and investigate it.
See below the fold for the results of that investigation.
Initially there appears to be a strong denial from the New Jersey Governor's office. While their accusations of partisan motivation on the part of MSNBC and Dawn Zimmer is so much hand-waving in attempt to distract from the core issues, a firm claim of 70 million versus Zimmer's claim of much less is a clear and verifiable fact in dispute.
However, if you carefully parse the statement about the $70 million it isn't clear how much of this was under the governor's control. For those who read the entire statement it is clear practically all of the $70 million came directly from FEMA.
Here is a link to the entire statement.
The phrase...
",,,with the city already having been approved for nearly $70 million dollars in federal
aid..."
... does not dispute Zimmer's accusation the governor intentionally withheld the bulk of the funding he had control over.
The statement is a non-denial denial. They did not dispute Dawn Zimmer's claim the state government held up millions of dollars in funds. Instead, they used passive tense and other language tricks to let the casual reader assume they did.
Then there is the clearly suspicious redistricting study. With some effort, I found it. LINK
There is also plenty of discussions and even a lawsuit over this indefensible attempt to bias a study's results to help one particular party interested in redevelopment in Hoboken. This happened in the timeframe Dawn Zimmer said it happened.
It defies credibility to believe the Christie staffed Port Authority had nothing to do with influencing this study since they hand-picked the consultants and attempted to setup improper meetings with Port Authority officials while Hoboken was deliberating over whether to accept or reject the study's findings.
Ironically, even the few remaining Christie supporters believe most of Dawn Zimmer's accusations are probably true. It's New Jersey after all. This is how things work.
I don't know if Dawn Zimmer is wearing a White Hat or a Black one. It really doesn't matter. Her actions, including past praise for Christie, is consistent with a desire to do her best for the town she is mayor of. She wouldn't be the first mayor to offer false praise to someone in hopes it will result in funding.
I wouldn't even be surprised if she gave the governor an ultimatum, "release the funding or I go to the press". Again, that would be consistent with her stated desire to do what is best for her town.
It's probably going to get very ugly. And regardless of whether or not her motives are pure. I believe she is telling the truth.