Monday, May 12, 2014

By David Sirota
On May 8, 2014


As Pando (click here) has previously reported, New Jersey has some of the nation’s strongest anti pay-to-play and anti-corruption laws and rules. These aim to prohibit public pension contracts from being awarded to investment firms whose executives make financial contributions to politicians, election funds and political party organizations operating in the state. They are buttressed by SEC rules engineered to do the same thing.

I have been following this and there are so many thoughts about this I don't where to start. I was also astounded to realize Pando shut down in August 2013. 

But, my initial reaction to this was that of the role of Governor Christi within his own administration. If he continues to state and it might be true he had no knowledge of these problems, then what was going on? These topics keep coming up over and over. He might not have been aware of these issues and if not I could understand why, but, gosh where was he and why was he so limited in his knowledge of these activities?

Everyone knows he was a US Attorney. He was notorious for his actions within that capacity. I would expect him to carry that awareness forward. I would think he would have feelers out there to realize these problems were going to occur. I can't help believe he was so absent to so much occurring within the state of New Jersey. And the campaign. He didn't know this was occurring? 

It's getting difficult to believe he was unaware of these issues. Whether or not he was instrumental is another story. But, the interesting aspect of corruption is that it grows, especially, when a government official would have adverse impacts to his political ambitions. He needs to address this. He can't simply deny there weren't problems.