Who has made millions off Chris Christie and New Jersey?
Private deals and government contracts worth millions to those within the governor's inner circle.
Friends who have prospered through their connections to Christie include public relations consultant Michael DuHaime, political adviser and lawyer William Palatucci and former Morris County Freeholder John Inglesino.
But the inside player who has gained the most in the four years since Christie became governor is David Samson, a former state attorney general and high-powered lawyer who has served Democratic and Republican administrations in the last three decades. Christie tapped Samson to chair the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, an agency that controls $8.2 billion and most of the transportation between the two states.
Samson, a key name in the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal, and the law firm he founded, Wolff & Samson of Roseland, along with its lobbying affiliate, Wolff & Samson Public Affairs LLC, have earned millions of dollars from government connections in the Christie era, public records show.
The lobbying firm’s top clients have also prospered, such as GTECH Corp., part of the Northstar New Jersey Lottery Group. The consortium last year signed a 15-year contract with the Christie administration to manage the New Jersey Lottery, which generates more than $2.7 billion in sales annually.
GTECH paid Wolff & Samson Public Affairs $450,000 to be its lobbyist, starting in 2011. Under the terms, the new lottery contract could pay Northstar up to $526 million over 15 years. GTECH did not respond to a request for comment.
“The phrase (Christie) used is that he would turn Trenton upside down. But mostly the only change we’ve seen is that it’s his set of insiders benefiting since Christie took office,” said Brigid Callahan Harrison, a professor of political science and law at Montclair State University. “He very implicitly and explicitly said that it wouldn’t be politics as usual. He made a specific promise that the cronyism he identified under past governors would be absent from his administration.”
Money and jobs
Examples of money and government job connections in New Jersey abound across administrations. A decade ago, the money made by insiders was sizable, but small in comparison to what Christie's friends are making now. Many insiders from the early 2000s used their connections to win part-time government jobs and legal contracts from municipalities.
A company headed by former Democratic Gov. James J. Florio won a $2 million contract in 2002 after the firm was the sole bidder to collect unpaid taxes in Camden, a Democratic stronghold. The contract earned the firm, Xspand, $600,000 in the first year.
On the Republican side, former state Sen. and acting Gov. John O. Bennett III of Monmouth County took in $1.9 million in salary over 10 years from the state, seven municipalities and one school board for legal work through 2002. Bennett is now chairman of the Monmouth County Republican Organization.
But Samson’s totals from lobbying and legal work tower over those two examples.
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