The mayor of Hoboken, N.J. says aides of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie would not provide the relief money she sought to rebuild her city following Hurricane Sandy unless she approved a redevelopment plan sought by the governor.
In an appearance on MSNBC, Dawn Zimmer said she did not agreed to the redevelopment plan, and claimed that as a result, Hoboken has only received $342,000 of the $127 million recovery funds she requested. Zimmer said Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and Christie's community-affairs commissioner, Richard Constable, were the two responsible for withholding money, a claim she backs up with emails and public records, posted below.
See also: New Jersey Subpoenas Christie Aides in Traffic Probe
Christie's camp, however, said Zimmer's claim is absurd.
“MSNBC is a partisan network that has been openly hostile to Governor Christie and almost gleeful in their efforts attacking him," Christie spokesperson Colin Reed told Mashable. "Governor Christie and his entire administration have been helping Hoboken get the help they need after Sandy."
This latest scandal lines up with what mayors of other Garden State cities have recently said about the Christie administration's use of political muscle. It is also just one on a laundry list of scandals that have pummelled Christie and his inner circle just as he enters his second term as governor, and the hype surrounding his probable 2016 Republican presidential bid was reaching a fever pitch.
Trouble for the New Jersey governor first erupted onto the national scene on Jan. 8, when emails between Christie's former deputy chief of staff and one of his appointees at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey showed they had orchestrated a massive four-day traffic jam in Fort Lee, N.J., allegedly as a means of political payback against the borough's mayor, who had refused to endorse Christie's reelection bid.
Earlier this week, a New Jersey Assembly committee subpoenaed nearly all members of Christie's administration, as well as several of his Port Authority appointees to figure out who was involved in the traffic scheme. Paul Fishman, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, said his office is reviewing the scandal to see if anyone broke federal laws.
Days after the gridlock scandal broke, CNN reported that federal investigators are looking into whether Christie misused Hurricane Sandy relief funds to produce an advertising campaign that featured the governor and his family, and was designed to bring tourists back to the state.
Although Christie has had a tumultuous start to his second term, he has not yet been linked to any of the ongoing scandals. The governor sought to move forward with his New Jersey agenda on Tuesday when he spoke about education reform, crime reduction and lowering property taxes during the annual State of the State address.
"This administration and this legislature will not allow the work that needs to be done to improve the people’s lives in New Jersey to be delayed," Christie said during the speech. Later, he added, "Today, the state of the state is good, and getting better."
Mayor: Christie camp held Sandy money hostage

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