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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNew Jersey Senate Urges Judge To Reject Chris Christie's ExxonMobil Settlement
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/16/christie-exxon-settlement_n_6882524.htmlMarch 16 (Reuters) - New Jersey's state Senate passed on Monday a non-binding resolution that asks a judge to reject Governor Chris Christie's $225 million settlement with ExxonMobil, according to the New Jersey legislature website.
<snip>
Christie, a likely Republican contender in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, settled on March 5 a long-running lawsuit over environmental damage from Exxon's Bayway and Bayonne oil refinery sites and certain other sites in New Jersey.
The accord needs to be approved by the judge overseeing the 2004 lawsuit after a public comment period, according to a statement from acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman and Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin.
In the resolution approved on Monday, lawmakers condemned the settlement and urged the judge to reject it. They described the accord as "grossly inappropriate, improper, and inadequate and violates the public trust." (http://bit.ly/1El1KF3)
Democrats, who lead New Jersey's legislature, had said they would intervene in the lawsuit.
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New Jersey Senate Urges Judge To Reject Chris Christie's ExxonMobil Settlement (Original Post)
malaise
Mar 2015
OP
Chris Christie Officials Sent Pension Money To Subsidiary of Donor’s Foreign Firm
malaise
Mar 2015
#1
That whole area is just scorched earth leeching into the ground water table! nt
TheBlackAdder
Mar 2015
#2
malaise
(269,026 posts)1. Chris Christie Officials Sent Pension Money To Subsidiary of Donor’s Foreign Firm
http://www.ibtimes.com/chris-christie-officials-sent-pension-money-subsidiary-donors-foreign-firm-1847744
<snip>
Two years ago, as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie pursued re-election, his administration found itself mulling investment options for the states $80 billion pension fund. In one deal in May 2013, officials settled on a subsidiary of U.K.-based foreign financial conglomerate Prudential plc. With little fanfare, state pension overseers quickly endorsed the deal.
Weeks later, a Hong Kong-based executive director and board member of Prudential plc delivered a maximum $3,800 contribution to Christies gubernatorial campaign, followed by a maximum $32,400 donation to the Republican National Committee, which was about to launch a get-out-the-vote effort for Christie. Two months after that, New Jersey began moving public employees retirement savings into two funds managed by the Prudential subsidiary as part of the states new $300 million investment commitment to the company.
State and federal rules are designed to prevent firms that manage public pension money from contributing to the campaigns of public officials who have the authority to influence pension investments. The sequence of transactions in New Jersey, campaign finance experts say, is troubling.
"Pay-to-play laws are intended to stop the potential conflicts of interest and appearance of corruption that arises whenever executives at a financial firm make large political contributions to a governor and his political party around the time the state is picking the firm to handle pension system investments," said Larry Noble, a former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission who now works for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, a research group in Washington, D.C. "These situations undermine the publics confidence in the integrity of government contracting."
<snip>
Two years ago, as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie pursued re-election, his administration found itself mulling investment options for the states $80 billion pension fund. In one deal in May 2013, officials settled on a subsidiary of U.K.-based foreign financial conglomerate Prudential plc. With little fanfare, state pension overseers quickly endorsed the deal.
Weeks later, a Hong Kong-based executive director and board member of Prudential plc delivered a maximum $3,800 contribution to Christies gubernatorial campaign, followed by a maximum $32,400 donation to the Republican National Committee, which was about to launch a get-out-the-vote effort for Christie. Two months after that, New Jersey began moving public employees retirement savings into two funds managed by the Prudential subsidiary as part of the states new $300 million investment commitment to the company.
State and federal rules are designed to prevent firms that manage public pension money from contributing to the campaigns of public officials who have the authority to influence pension investments. The sequence of transactions in New Jersey, campaign finance experts say, is troubling.
"Pay-to-play laws are intended to stop the potential conflicts of interest and appearance of corruption that arises whenever executives at a financial firm make large political contributions to a governor and his political party around the time the state is picking the firm to handle pension system investments," said Larry Noble, a former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission who now works for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, a research group in Washington, D.C. "These situations undermine the publics confidence in the integrity of government contracting."
TheBlackAdder
(28,205 posts)2. That whole area is just scorched earth leeching into the ground water table! nt