Latest Breaking News

George II

(67,782 posts) Tue Jan 6, 2015, 01:31 PM Jan 2015

Christie spokesman: Luxury box tickets were gift from Cowboys owner, OK under executive order

Source: Bergen Record (Northjersey.com)

Last updated: Tuesday, January 6, 2015, 12:02 PM

By MELISSA HAYES

State House Bureau |

The Record

Governor Christie was able to root for his favorite football team, the Dallas Cowboys, from the owner’s luxury box, despite the state’s strict ethics regulations that bar such gifts for most elected officials, because an executive order allows governors to receive things from “personal friends,” an administration spokesman said Monday.

Jerry Jones, the team’s owner and a GOP donor, provided Christie and members of his family with tickets to three games this season and paid for the family to fly in a private jet to Sunday’s playoff game in Dallas against the Detroit Lions, the spokesman, Kevin Roberts, said.

“Governor Christie attended the game last night as a guest of Jerry Jones, who provided both the ticket and transportation at no expense to New Jersey taxpayers,” Roberts said in a statement, referring to the Dallas vs. Detroit game.

Jones also invited Christie to watch the Cowboys/Eagles game from the owner’s box in Philadelphia — a mid-December appearance that inflamed diehard fans of the archrival Eagles and New York Giants when it was captured on national television and sparked a social-media firestorm — after learning that the governor was in attendance, Roberts said.

Read more: http://www.northjersey.com/news/christie-spokesman-luxury-box-tickets-were-gift-from-cowboys-owner-ok-under-executive-order-1.1186423

More on the Christie flap - seems there's a HUGE double standard in New Jersey regarding politicians accepting gift.

Interesting, further down in the article it's noted that CHRISTIE himself revised the code of conduct requiring that a Governor report a non-monetary gift of more than $200, yet Christie has never done so!

15 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Christie spokesman: Luxury box tickets were gift from Cowboys owner, OK under executive order (Original Post) George II Jan 2015 OP

Must it be reported to the IRS as income? Downwinder Jan 2015 #1

"Personal friend" exemption card? Definition does not include "billionaire donors I met last year". Fred Sanders Jan 2015 #2

McDonnell immediately sprang to my mind, too wordpix Jan 2015 #3

I doubt that Jerry paid it out of his pocket. Downwinder Jan 2015 #5

CowboYs accounting office will file under "Bribing politicians and getting away with it using ridiculous excuses". Fred Sanders Jan 2015 #6

most likely no joeglow3 Jan 2015 #4

Okay, I'm NO football fan, and certainly NO sports fan. What I know about sports and calimary Jan 2015 #7

follow the dollar grasswire Jan 2015 #8

What? The Governor of a state just admitted he gave a huge contract to a "personal friend". TeamPooka Jan 2015 #14

Technically the Jets and Giants are his team jmowreader Jan 2015 #11

If it was an executive order then I assume that it was signed by him? Bjorn Against Jan 2015 #9

The original executive order came from McGreevey, then Christie modified it in 2010... George II Jan 2015 #10

McDonnell just got prison time for gifts in office lobodons Jan 2015 #12

It is interesting when a politician is as blatantly corrupt as Christie... olddad56 Jan 2015 #13

The Washington Post is onto this now, it's becoming national news, not just Northeast or NJ news.... George II Jan 2015 #15

Downwinder

(12,869 posts)

1. Must it be reported to the IRS as income?

Reply to George II (Original post)

Tue Jan 6, 2015, 01:34 PM

Jan 2015

Fred Sanders

(23,946 posts)

2. "Personal friend" exemption card? Definition does not include "billionaire donors I met last year".

Reply to Downwinder (Reply #1)

Tue Jan 6, 2015, 01:36 PM

Jan 2015

Did they learn nothing from convict Governer McDonnell and all his gifts from personal friends?

"At no expense to the taxpayers....", yeah, because political graft and corruption are never a cost to the taxpayers, though it is called "corruption and influence peddling".

The Governor's gifts, he also claimed they were from a personal friend, cost nothing to the taxpayer also as I recall. Jury is not buying it.

What next, a "gift" of a yacht? Also no problem! Personal friend!

wordpix

(18,652 posts)

3. McDonnell immediately sprang to my mind, too

Reply to Fred Sanders (Reply #2)

Tue Jan 6, 2015, 01:39 PM

Jan 2015

That "personal friend" exemption didn't work in McD's case at all.

Downwinder

(12,869 posts)

5. I doubt that Jerry paid it out of his pocket.

Reply to Fred Sanders (Reply #2)

Tue Jan 6, 2015, 01:42 PM

Jan 2015

Fred Sanders

(23,946 posts)

6. CowboYs accounting office will file under "Bribing politicians and getting away with it using ridiculous excuses".

Reply to Downwinder (Reply #5)

Tue Jan 6, 2015, 01:46 PM

Jan 2015

joeglow3

(6,228 posts)

4. most likely no

Reply to Downwinder (Reply #1)

Tue Jan 6, 2015, 01:40 PM

Jan 2015

It was a gift and is subject to gift tax rules, but those are borne by the person giving the gift and not the person receiving it.

calimary

(81,323 posts)

7. Okay, I'm NO football fan, and certainly NO sports fan. What I know about sports and

Reply to George II (Original post)

Tue Jan 6, 2015, 02:16 PM

Jan 2015

sports loyalties you could fit on the head of a pin. It's just not me, and it never has been.

But am I off base to question whether a HIGHLY-political and manipulative governor with obvious presidential ambitions should be rooting for a team other than one from his own home turf - or at least the turf immediately next-door? I don't even know if New Jersey has an NFL team. But as New Jersey governor he's so closely tied to New York through the Port Authority and other mechanisms. And Pennsylvania is his next-door neighbor, too. Wouldn't that include the Eagles (they're Philadelphia, correct? Truly, I know next-to-NOTHING about this stuff)? Shouldn't he be rooting only for the local team or the closest team - if for no other reason, how it looks? The optics of a New Jersey politician whooping it up for a Texas team? It looks bad to me. Does that look bad to you?

I don't get it. Maybe it's nothing. But if I were governor, seems to me I should at least put on a good face for the locals or near-locals, regardless who I really rooted for, in my heart. Shouldn't I? Or does that make any difference?

And then again, it could also be that I'm just automatically and instinctively wired to dislike and suspect the worst about ANYTHING chris christie does. Or ANY republi-CON, for that matter.

grasswire

(50,130 posts)

8. follow the dollar

Reply to calimary (Reply #7)

Tue Jan 6, 2015, 02:35 PM

Jan 2015

The contract for concessions at the NJ NY Port Authority was granted to the Dallas Cowboys Inc. -- very very lucrative contract.

About as stinko as it can get.

TeamPooka

(24,229 posts)

14. What? The Governor of a state just admitted he gave a huge contract to a "personal friend".

Reply to grasswire (Reply #8)

Tue Jan 6, 2015, 04:23 PM

Jan 2015

Is that so wrong?
Not to the GOP and Republican thinking.

jmowreader

(50,560 posts)

11. Technically the Jets and Giants are his team

Reply to calimary (Reply #7)

Tue Jan 6, 2015, 03:38 PM

Jan 2015

While both are named "New York," their stadium is in New Jersey.

Bjorn Against

(12,041 posts)

9. If it was an executive order then I assume that it was signed by him?

Reply to George II (Original post)

Tue Jan 6, 2015, 02:39 PM

Jan 2015

So the Governor can sign executive orders exempting himself from ethics rules, no conflict of interest here.

George II

(67,782 posts)

10. The original executive order came from McGreevey, then Christie modified it in 2010...

Reply to Bjorn Against (Reply #9)

Tue Jan 6, 2015, 03:26 PM

Jan 2015

...tightening up the reporting requirements. That is what is most curious - Christie's change called for reporting any non-monetary gift over $200, but from what I read to date he hasn't even complied with his OWN change.

If end zone tickets cost over $100 surely the luxury box tickets go for a lot more than $200, not to mention the private jet, food (THAT'S got to be a hefty bill) and other things.

lobodons

(1,290 posts)

12. McDonnell just got prison time for gifts in office

Reply to George II (Original post)

Tue Jan 6, 2015, 04:01 PM

Jan 2015

Damn, McDonnell just got prison time for gifts in office.

olddad56

(5,732 posts)

13. It is interesting when a politician is as blatantly corrupt as Christie...

Reply to George II (Original post)

Tue Jan 6, 2015, 04:12 PM

Jan 2015

and so many people still approve of the job he is doing. We get the government we deserve.

George II

(67,782 posts)

15. The Washington Post is onto this now, it's becoming national news, not just Northeast or NJ news....

Reply to George II (Original post)

Tue Jan 6, 2015, 09:47 PM

Jan 2015

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2015/01/06/chris-christies-trip-to-dallas-on-jerry-jones-dime-raises-ethics-concerns/

They point out precisely why this is an ethical violation:

The state’s Code of Conduct says that governors “may accept gifts, favors, services, gratuities, meals, lodging or travel expenses from relatives or personal friends that are paid for with personal funds.”

You're going to tell me that Jerry Jones paid for his luxury box with his own "personal funds", not revenue from the Dallas Cowboys team corporation, and his jet is owned "personally" by him?

They also point out the details of the Port Authority contract:

The sticky issue is that the governor of New Jersey, along with the governor of New York, controls the Port Authority, and Legends Hospitality, a company in which Jones has an interest, has been given a license to run an observation deck atop One World Trade Center, which is operated by the Port Authority. The New York Yankees and Checketts Partners Investment Fund own Legends, along with the Cowboys, and the company’s One World Trade Center deal is expected to produce $875 million in revenue over 15 years for the Port Authority. The Yankees’ Randy Levine, a board member of Legends Hospitality, said Jones was not involved in the negotiations with the Port Authority for the observation deck contract. Levine did, though, tell the Wall Street Journal that Jones’s family is a “significant” investor.

Reply to this discussion