January 21, 2014
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The politically connected real estate group
has spent more
than $70,000 on both parties, including $2,500 to Christie. Of their 21
donations, 16 went to Republicans for a total of $40,500. $37,000 went
to Democrats. Rockefeller employees also dole out cash, with Christie
receiving money from two executives.
While the money has gone to both parties, the real estate
company now finds itself in the middle of a partisan controversy over
the Christie administration punishing political opponents. In this
case, the issue is the alleged pressure on the Hoboken mayor over a
real estate development project Rockefeller was pushing.
Over the weekend,
MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki broke a story
by interviewing the mayor of Hoboken, Dawn Zimmer, who said that she
was pressured by Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno and Community Affairs
Commissioner Richard Constable. The Rockefeller Group’s eyes have been
set on a multi-million dollar development project. Guadagno and
Constable allegedly withheld Hurricane Sandy relief money from Zimmer
because she did not approve the development.
“The bottom line is, it’s not fair for the governor to hold
Sandy funds hostage for the City of Hoboken because he wants me to give
back to one private developer,” Zimmer told Kornacki on his MSNBC show.
Zimmer only received about $342,000, instead of the $127
million she wanted in the aftermath of Sandy, which devastated Hoboken.
The Rockefeller Group owns the land where the project is
set to be built, and is represented by a law firm founded by a close
ally of Christie. In addition,
as the New York Times notes,
a study of the redevelopment project “had been paid for with $75,000
from the Port Authority, whose deputy executive director at the time was
a Christie appointee, Bill Baroni.” The study concluded that three
blocks out of 19 in question should be developed--and all the lots in
those groups were owned by Rockefeller. Ron Hine, the director of Fund
for a Better Waterfront, a Hoboken advocacy group,
told the Times that it looked like the company was getting “special treatment.”
The allegations from Zimmer lead to a meeting between the
mayor and a federal prosecutor. The federal government is already
looking into the allegations that the Christie administration punished
the mayor of Fort Lee over his refusal to endorse the governor’s
re-election.
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