Tornado Alley (PROG)

[arizona1]

Drip, drip, drip.

Mayor Bollwage accuses Gov. Christie of shutting down 4th largest DMV in NJ for political revenge

The U.K.'s Daily Mail just broke the story of three Democrats, including the Mayor of Elizabeth, NJ, accusing Governor Chris Christie of shutting down the city's DMV, out of political revenge, under the title "Vindictive ... p***k' Chris Christie accused of THIRD political revenge act as Democrats say he shut down urban DMV office because they opposed him."

Governor Chris Christie has been accused of exacting still more political revenge after his administration shut down the DMV office in a large New Jersey city three years ago – and Democratic politicians say it was because they opposed his tax policies and worked for his Election Day opponent.

'He shut it down, plain and simple, and of course this was political,' New Jersey state Assemblyman Joe Cryan told MailOnline of the Motor Vehicle Commission office in Elizabeth, the fourth-largest city in New Jersey. 'This was complete retribution. ... There was no other possible explanation for it.' ...

And Elizabeth's longtime mayor, Chris Bollwage, got under Christie's skin soon after he took Corzine's job, joining Cryan and Lesniak to publicly oppose what they called a 'flawed' plan to cap the rate of annual property tax increases in New Jersey.

The three Democrats now say closing the motor vehicle bureau in Elizabeth was a way for Christie to crush three political adversaries with a single stroke of his pen.

A Christie spokesperson, Colin Reed, issued a statement saying Elizabeth's DMV was closed as a cost saving measure.

The Daily Mail add that the mayor also suspects that his city was shut out of money awarded to three nearby cities for red-light traffic safety cameras.

This Daily Mail article does much to capture the local color and feel of New Jersey politics. The title of the Daily Mail piece comes from NJ Assemblyman Joseph Cryan who is quoted saying: <

'there was no logical reason' to close the Elizabeth MVC office, 'other than to be a vindictive -- I don't want to use the word "prick" -- but a vindictive individual.'

I recommend this article as an entertaining and informative read with, many more "provocative" quotes, salty language, and a sort of high level, or distance overview, of the story from a U.K. perspective, which is quite charming, entertaining and humorous in the classic British ways.

In a previous story I reported last week which The Daily Mail also did original research on and they broke last week many wondered why the The Daily Mail is investing so much investigative journalism resources in such a distance story, and I think I just figured out why. I just read another story on the extensive U.K. betting on the U.S. presidential elections which I will post in an update. Four different betting agencies already have extensive betting operations on dozens of aspects of our 2016 elections. BTW, Cristie's odds of winning the Republican nomination have fallen to 5 to 1 if you would like to place a bet. Hilliary Clinton is 2 to 1 to win presidential election.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...

1:11 PM PT: BTW, let me be the first to wish myself a happy birthday. My son just called, so I'll be back in about 20 minutes to join the conversation.

1:28 PM PT: A late night comic remarked that from now on major traffic jams are going to be called "Christie's," as in "A major Christie is breaking out on Route 95."

Now, super long lines at the DMV. Let me be the first to predict a new addition to the English language -- "Hon, sorry I'm going to be two hours late. I got "Christie'd" at the DMV."

1:58 PM PT:

The Democratic Underground just picked up this same story a few minutes ago. I always like to second source stories this sensational when I'm the only one in the US running it. But along the way, two new scoops are running in addition to the U.S. Attorney issuing subpoenas to the Christie re-election campaign.

Gov. Chris Christie reelection campaign subpoenaed for federal ‘Bridgegate’ investigation

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman has asked both the campaign and the Republican committee to provide documents as the office investigates possible political retaliation by the two-term governor.
Take that, Chris Christie! Another attack ad surfaces from the Guv's bad old days in Morris politics By Paul Mulshine/The Star Ledger

In my Thursday column, I wrote about the contretemps between conservative political consultant Rick Shaftan and Todd Christie, the brother of the governor.

It occurred during the 2009 Republican primary campaign when Shaftan was working for Christie's conservative opponent, former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan. Read up on it here.

That tiff brought back memories of Chris Christie's bad old days in the 1990s when he was running for office in Morris County, and getting in a lot of fights with his fellow Republicans.

The Washington Post recently ran a 1994 Christie attack ad for which he was sued and later had to apologize.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/23/1271973/-Mayor-Bollwage-accusses-Gov-Christie-of-shutting-down-4th-largest-DMV-in-NJ-for-political-revenge