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Endorse This: Chris Christie vs. Chair (Christie 0, Chair 1)

Endorse This: Chris Christie vs. Chair (Christie 0, Chair 1)

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Chris Christie’s friends at a local sports radio show have taken a fun sort of revenge on him for having danced in celebration of a Dallas Cowboys win with team owner Jerry Jones: Posting a never-before-seen piece of video from one of Christie’s visits to them last year, which any politician would rather the public not see.

Click above to watch the video, which is fun for both sports fans and non-fans alike as everyone heads into the Super Bowl weekend — then share this video!

Video via SportsRadio 94WIP.

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Gifts To Christie Raise Big Ethics Questions

Gifts To Christie Raise Big Ethics Questions

Gov. Chris Christie’s appearances at professional football games to cheer on his beloved Dallas Cowboys have led to questions about why his favorite team isn’t a New Jersey local like the Jets, Giants or Eagles. But Christie’s bromance with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones raises an even thornier question: When Christie received free owners’ box seats for recent Cowboys games, was he complying with New Jersey’s tough ethics rules banning gifts and favors to public officials?

New Jersey’s executive branch ethics rules warn state officials that there’s “a zero tolerance policy for acceptance of gifts offered to you … that are related in any way to your official duties.” The ethics rules specifically prohibit public officials from accepting access to entertainment events from any person or entity that public officials “deal with, contact, or regulate in the course of official business.” The rules define one form of restricted gift as “admission to an event for which a member of the general public would be charged.”

In his role as governor, Christie has had myriad high-profile dealings with the National Football League and with Jones.

Under Christie’s watch, New Jersey officials delivered almost $18 million of taxpayer money to the league to offset costs associated with the 2014 Super Bowl. That included $8 million worth of sales tax breaks, plus millions more in security costs the state picked up for the league. All that was on top of New Jersey property tax breaks that benefit the league. It was also in addition to Christie pushing to give a Port Authority contract to a firm that is partly owned by Jones.

Christie has already said he’s interested in having New Jersey host another Super Bowl. The league has a deep interest in the state’s policy governing sports gambling. Meanwhile, with Christie potentially running for the White House in 2016, the NFL also has an interest in shaping the next president’s thinking on its antitrust exemptions and tax-exempt status.

Despite his state’s business with Jones, Christie nonetheless accepted free travel and game tickets from the Cowboys owner. The governor claims that an executive order he signed allows him to accept gifts from “personal friends.”

Craig Holman of the watchdog group Public Citizen says the situation “smacks of the Jack Abramoff-style of gift” — a reference to the convicted lobbyist whose influence-peddling operation involved giving lawmakers access to his FedEx Field skybox for professional football games.

“We have seen a shift since the Abramoff scandal, as many high-profile lawmakers are now far more cautious about accepting gifts like tickets,” Holman said. “But when you are talking about a sitting governor who is potentially running for president, this is something unusual. If these seats were given to him by the NFL or anyone else who is trying to influence his policies, that would constitute a gift and would clearly be in violation of his state’s ethics code.”

In 2010, Christie cited the New Jersey ethics code in revoking public officials’ special access to tickets at the arenas owned by New Jersey. However, he retained the perk for himself. A year later, under political pressure, Christie reversed himself and reimbursed the state for costs associated with using a state helicopter to attend his son’s baseball games.

New Jersey lawmakers have announced they are considering launching a government investigation into the gifts. The question now for Christie is whether he will reimburse Jones for all the costs of going to the games. If he doesn’t, he is setting a precedent suggesting public officials can deem anyone a “personal friend” and then ignore the most basic anti-corruption rules that remain on the books.

David Sirota is a senior writer at the International Business Times and the best-selling author of the books Hostile Takeover, The Uprising and Back to Our Future. Email him at ds@davidsirota.com, follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website at www.davidsirota.com.

Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Ethicists Question Christie’s Free Cowboy Tickets

Ethicists Question Christie’s Free Cowboy Tickets

By Maddie Hanna and Andrew Seidman, The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)

TRENTON, N.J. — Of the five Dallas Cowboys games Gov. Christie has attended this season, team owner Jerry Jones supplied the tickets for three — along with a private plane ride for Christie and his family to attend Sunday’s game in Texas, the governor’s office said Monday.

While New Jersey’s rules allow the governor, a longtime Cowboys fan, to accept gifts from friends, two legal experts questioned whether the gifts gave the appearance of improper conduct.

“We’re going to see. This is a lot of money, being paid for by somebody who is an owner of a team in the NFL. The NFL has wanted a lot of things in New Jersey,” said Larry Noble, former general counsel for the Federal Election Commission and now senior counsel with the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog group in Washington.

The gifts create an impression of buying or attempting to buy influence or favor, he said. “Ethics laws are very much about impressions and appearances,” Noble said.

Spokesmen for Christie did not respond to a request for comment Monday night on the ethics of the situation.

Christie’s office earlier Monday cited the governor’s Code of Conduct — an executive order with “more malleable” gift rules than those applying to other executive branch employees, according to Paula Franzese, a Seton Hall University law professor who specializes in government ethics.

The code permits the governor to accept “gifts, favors, services, gratuities, meals, lodging or travel expenses from relatives or personal friends that are paid for with personal funds.”

The governor, a Republican, is contemplating a run for president in 2016.

Christie’s interactions with Jones have been on prominent display this season, antagonizing some sports fans, including in Philadelphia.

When the Cowboys beat the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field last month, the sight of Christie high-fiving the rival team’s owner didn’t sit well with many fans in the area.

The flood of attention continued Sunday during the Cowboys’ playoff win over the Detroit Lions in Texas. A video of Christie going up for a high-five, then going in for a group hug with Jones, was quickly circulated on social media, spurring much commentary.

Christie — who flew to the game with his family on a private plane after they had vacationed in the Bahamas, the governor’s office said — suggested in a radio interview Monday that he has been a lucky charm for the Cowboys.

Noting the team has won all five of the games he’s attended — and that he’s worn the same orange sweater to each — Christie said, “There are some people in my universe who believe that becomes a good-luck thing.”

In the WFAN interview, Christie said he hoped to travel this Sunday to Lambeau Field, where the Cowboys will face the Green Bay Packers.

At one point, host Boomer Esiason remarked that the “governor gets paid a lot of money to do all these things.”

Christie responded, “Easy now.”

Unlike other New Jersey executive branch employees, Christie is permitted by the governor’s Code of Conduct to accept gifts “as long as those are paid for with personal funds and are not intended to influence” his actions as governor, Franzese said.

The tickets and travel could be considered a gift from one friend to another, for “an innocent fun football weekend,” she said. “It gets sticky when one wonders whether the gift-giving is intended to curry some kind of favor, now or in the future.”

Christie and Jones “struck up a relationship over the last two or three years and they’re good friends,” said Rich Dalrymple, vice president of public relations for the Cowboys.

Noble, of the Campaign Legal Center, said friendship exemptions in ethics laws are “intended to cover situations where you have a long-term friend” who sends a birthday gift, not friends made in Christie’s “professional capacity as governor.” He questioned whether Jones had paid for the tickets personally, or whether the Cowboys had.

Dalrymple said he did not know the cost of the tickets Christie received or details on the plane ride.

He also didn’t know whether Jones or the team had paid for the tickets — a question Christie’s spokesmen did not respond to Monday night. The governor’s office said earlier that Jones “provided both the ticket and transportation at no expense to New Jersey taxpayers.”

“Technically, I guess they’re paid for by the Cowboys,” Dalrymple said. Jones “is the Cowboys, in terms of ownership of the team.”

The state has paid for Christie’s security detail at the games, though police didn’t disclose costs Monday.

“He’s the governor 24/7, and we provide security for him at all times,” said Capt. Stephen Jones of the New Jersey State Police.

Screenshot: YouTube

Cowboys Owner Sued Over ‘Sexual Assault’: Report

Cowboys Owner Sued Over ‘Sexual Assault’: Report

Dallas (AFP) — Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has been sued by a former exotic dancer for an alleged sexual assault in 2009 in a hotel bathroom, The Dallas Morning News reported.

The 71-year-old businessman, who bought the famed National Football League club in 1989, is being sued for more than $1 million in punitive damages by Jana Weckerly, a 27-year-old Oklahoma woman.

Weckerly accuses Jones of fondling her, forcing her to fondle him and watch him engage in sex with another woman, according to the report.

In a statement to ESPN, Levi McCathern, Jones’ attorney, called the lawsuit an attempt to embarrass Jones.

“These allegations are completely false,” he said. “The legal complaint is unsupported by facts or evidence of any kind. This is nothing more than an attempt to embarrass and extort Jerry Jones. This is a shakedown by a lawyer who is a solo practitioner just trying to make a name for himself.

“We intend to vigorously contest this complaint and expect it will be shown for what it is — a money grab.”

Details of an encounter between Jones and multiple women, including photos of Jones with women in provocative poses, were made public last month.

On Sunday, Jones told the newspaper that “someone has misrepresented photos taken at a restaurant five years ago for their own purposes. I’m just not going to comment on it.”

The lawsuit claims Jones forced Weckerly to sign an agreement to conceal the alleged incident.

Thomas Bowers, Weckerly’s lawyer, told the newspaper that she was in counseling and taking medication to cope with trauma from the alleged incident.

AFP Photo/Tom Pennington

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