Well, now we know how much the NJ state Republican Party — if they were the ones who really picked up the tab — were willing to spend to send Gov. Chris Christie out to secretly hob-nob with the millionaire and billionaire corporatists at the Koch brothers’ super-secret conference near Vail, CO, last June.
In a story headlined “Christie Comes Clean on Trips as N.J. Governor Seeks Donations,” Bloomberg News reports that Christie “has made at least 35 political appearances outside New Jersey since he took office in January 2010, according to a review of his public schedule, published reports and Republican State Committee finance records filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.”
“Those trips became a political issue after Christie’s June attendance at a private Colorado gathering hosted by the Tea-Party-backing Koch brothers came to light,” the news agency says. “Christie, who pledged a ‘new era of transparency’ in his inaugural address, didn’t notify the public or legislative leaders that he left the state that day.”
But buried in that story was this little gem…
$63,000 for a one day trip there and back? Apparently he didn’t fly Southwest.
That seems like a lot of money considering Christie compared the Koch jaunt to a “family trip” or a quick stop at the deli, when he was initially asked to explain why he didn’t disclose the trip in the first place.
Was the NJ Republican Party reimbursed for that $63k by the Kochs? By some other corporate entity? Or does the state party just have $63k sitting around to blow on what was supposed to have been a secret trip, until we otherwise blew that secret with our exclusive at Mother Jones a few weeks back, revealing Christie’s secret keynote address for the billionaire brothers?
Hopefully someone can do some more digging there. We can’t imagine working man donors to the NJ GOP being asked to scrape up $50 or $100 donations would be too happy to see that kind of profligate spending — at least not without getting something in return. But what do we know?
In the meantime, as we reported following our MoJo story, NJ state Democrats have since introduced a bill requiring the Governor to notify state legislative leaders when he leaves Jersey. Not long thereafter, state Democrats created a WheresChristieNow.com website to make hay out of it all — including a Google map tracking Christie’s many national travel destinations (at least the ones that they know of) outside of the Garden State.
Hell, I can’t imagine a (sane) working man giving anything to the GOP..
I would beg to differ, Carver.
The working class stiffs who have been victimized by Koch-funded and controlled “Tea Party” propaganda are not “insane.”
These misinformed souls — whom our Jeannie Dean dubbed as “Tea Tards” — simply do not realize that they are but puppets dangling at the end of strings held by the same rapacious billionaires who are the source of their economic demise and disenchantment.
I am torn between Ernie’s and Carver’s take on it, but I think Ernie is trying to move us away from the ad hominem realm.
We all need to get in touch with our inner microbe, and perhaps Christie has more of those than most of us.
In which case, perhaps he needs such consultation to take it all in?
$63,000! Whew, next time they should just use parcel post.
As suspected the whole GOP pays homage to the Koch Boys…adopting their fuedal system type “Gov’mint” their own……a land of the wealthy, landed gentry ownership and privelege… exploiting serfs/slaves (who will have NO rights) for their own personal comforts and use (like toilet paper?)