Embattled New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was heckled today at a Mount Laurel town hall meeting as he faced hostile questioning from constituents. One heckler alleged that Christie spent two and a half times more money on ads touting his work on Sandy relief than he did on actually relieving families from that disaster.
“He spent two-and-a-half times as much money on advertisements with himself in them … than on small businesses affected by Hurricane Sandy,” Rowan student Michael Brein shouted, according to NJ.com. “I just wanted to ask how he can justify that to the small businesses in the state?… I’m here to say people still care about the Bridgegate scandal. They still care about the misappropriation of Sandy money.”
Christie, red in the face, responded:
“Either sit down and keep quiet or get out!” he exclaimed. “We’re done with you.”
“These folks who come in here today, ginned up for their own partisan purposes, they’re getting exactly what they want,” he told the crowd. “Because what happens is, they get taken out, they get attention. And the press follows them out, and then interviews them. Right?”
The site NJ.com
has more video detail of the event. When the students were heckling Christie, there were a lot of members of the audience who agreed with them as evidenced by their booing. The hostile behavior happened until the end of the question and answer session and six people were removed from the event. One student was critical of his leadership skills.
“I believe whatever he says about the lane closures, but what does it show his leadership skills were by hiring all these crooks?” said Kailee Whiting, 20, another Rowan student.
Brein was representing the
New Jersey Working Families Alliance.
The New Jersey Working Families Alliance is fighting for justice and fairness in the Garden State. We’re a grassroots coalition representing workers, environmentalists, consumers and more that formed to advance a vision of a New Jersey that works for the people instead of the powerful.
We fight to hold politicians accountable on the issues that matter to working families – good public schools, affordable health care, and fair budget and taxes. Since our founding we’ve been on the front lines of the biggest fights in Trenton. We coordinate the Better Choices for New Jersey coalition that leads the fight against Governor Christie’s short-sighted approach of tax cuts for the rich and cuts to vital services like schools and public safety for everyone else. We’re also building grassroots power for working families by training a new generation of progressive leaders with community roots and the courage to stand up for the 99% here in New Jersey.
The alliance and other groups
have hit Port Authority Chairman David Samson with an ethics complaint.
"This complaint alleges that Samson violated the CIL by using his position as Chairman of the Port Authority to influence decisions of the Port Authority Board of Commissioners that would benefit clients of his law firm, Wolff & Samson PC," states the complaint, filed by the New Jersey Working Families Alliance, a Democratic-leaning coalition of consumer, environmental and labor groups.
The Working Families alliance says Wolff & Samson clients that have benefited from Samson's Port Authority position include NJ Transit, the South Jersey Transportation Authority, PSE&G, BRG Harrison Lofts Urban Renewal LLC and Alfonso Daloisio, a part owner of Railroad Construction Company.
For example, the complaint sites Wolff & Samson's retention by NJ Transit in September 2010 — before Samson became Port Authority chairman — as special counsel for the purpose of maximizing the agency's parking revenues, for an initial fee of $650,000. In July 2011, after Samson was named Port Authority chairman by Gov. Chris Christie, the firm's annual contract with NJ Transit was increased to $1.5 million, the complaint states.