My Own Photographic Evidence of Chris Christie's Corruption

New Jersey is having its election for governor on Tuesday, and right now it looks like incumbent Chris Christie is going to win in a landslide.  This despite the fact that the state's economy has remained in the doldrums, that Christie has slashed money to schools, has let political cronies run halfway houses that abuse inmates and let them escape, canceled needed public works projects while giving state funding for a giant shopping mall, cut money for police in cities that need cops on the streets, and generally behaved like a bullying jackass.

Of all of Christie's many corrupt dealings and lies, none may be more egregious than his exploitation of Hurricane Sandy.  This summer, when the state needed to run ads to promote tourism to the Jersey Shore after Sandy's devastation, it chose a company whose ads prominently featured Christie and his family (not ordinary New Jerseyans) with the slogan "stronger than the storm."  Coming in an election year, it seemed awful fishy to me, and I was right.  According to the Asbury Park Press, the "Stronger Than the Storm" ad agency charged $2 million more than a competing firm whose ads were not going to feature Christie.  That's right, the state used taxpayer dollars to give the Christie campaign some free propaganda. The head of the selection committee and a Christie appointee had also once received a $49,000 loan from the governor.  I tell you, it stinks worse than a two-day old fish wrapped in a three day old newspaper.

And yet the man seems to be made of teflon.  Like the popular bully at school, people feel like they have to support him for their own standing, or are afraid of what could happen to them if they oppose him.  Considering that, I am not sure if the little revelation I have to offer here will matter much.

The weather was beautiful when I got home from work today, and so I decided to take the dog on an extra-long walk down to Independence Park.  On my way home, I noticed some Christie stickers on the light poles.  I looked closer, and saw that the slogan "Stronger Than The Storm" appeared below his name.  The governor had always said that the ads this summer were there to promote New Jersey, and not him, but evidently his campaign is now explicitly tying the governor to the summer ad campaign.  Not only is this ridiculous in light of Christie's failures to enact proper storm recovery, it pretty much exposes those ads for what they were the whole time: state-sponsored and tax-payer funded propaganda for the governor.  I am not sure if it's illegal, but it stinks.

Footnote: I have also just been told that the sticker reads "Stronger Than The Strom," which is a helluva typo.  I guess Christie would be stronger than the corpse of Strom Thurmond.