New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ruffled a lot of tri-state feathers just by the fact that he's a Dallas Cowboys fan, and celebrated their recent win over the Detroit Lions in Cowboy owner Jerry Jones' luxury suite. But it's not just his dubious team loyalty that's under scrutiny—it's
how he got to the game.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie accepted a plane ride to Dallas and a seat at a Cowboys playoff football game in a luxury suite from team owner Jerry Jones, who has a business relationship with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, officials said.
Mr. Christie's aides said the gifts were acceptable under state policy, which allows the governor to take gifts from "relatives or personal friends that are paid for with personal funds."
Christie spokesman Kevin Roberts stressed that "Governor Christie attended the game [Sunday] night as a guest of Jerry Jones, who provided both the ticket and transportation at no expense to New Jersey taxpayers." Notably, however:
The governor's office didn’t answer questions about who paid for travel for security during the Dallas trip or about how much the gift was worth. Aides said he doesn't have to disclose personal gifts from friends to the State Ethics Commission, and he never has, according to financial disclosure forms.
So who did pay for the governor's security detail? That remains a big question. As far has how much Christie's trip was worth, that's probably in the range of $25,000 to $30,000 per person, according to a luxury travel agent. That's some nice grift if you can get it.
The tie to the Port Authority—the Cowboys organization and Jones are part owners of Legends Hospitality, the operator of a soon-to-be-opened observatory of the 104-story One World Trade Center which is operated by the Port Authority. That would be the Port Authority that Christie put his old buddy David Wildstein in, the same David Wildstein who was the central figure in the George Washington Bridge scandal of 2014 in which Christie's staff and political appointees collaborated to create traffic jams in Fort Lee, New Jersey, by closing lanes as political payback. Following that scandal, the state legislature tried to reform the agency, only to be met with a Christie veto. Seems Christie likes the PA just the way it is, and why wouldn't he?