Brown is the woman commonly believed to be Christie’s (as the New York Post would put it) “gal pal”:
TRENTON — After months of delay, Gov. Chris Christie’s administration has released several dozen boilerplate pages of “Stronger Than the Storm” contract documents — but officials are promising to turn over the cache of additional in-depth information sought by Gannett New Jersey.
The Asbury Park Press, a sister paper to the Courier-Post, requested on Aug. 7 the notes and communications generated by the state evaluation committee that awarded the $25 million tourism advertising contract resulting in television commercials starring Christie and his family.
The contract was funded by federal Sandy recovery dollars, and the commercials aired in the spring and summer. Christie at the same time was gearing up his re-election campaign, giving him an unfair political benefit, critics have said.
To date, none of the transcripts, notes, memorandums, emails, texts or minutes from the evaluation committee’s meetings have been made public.
The six-member committee was headed by Michele Brown, who is CEO of the state Economic Development Authority at a salary of $225,000. Brown is a former federal prosecutor in New Jersey; she resigned that post in 2009 amid controversy over a loan of $46,000 from Christie.
The loan, which since has been repaid, was given in 2007 when Christie was a U.S. attorney and she was a subordinate in his office. Christie’s failure to disclose the loan became an issue in his first gubernatorial campaign.
This is a timely reminder that we should keep the Christie in Christiemas, and also pray for him because he seems to be wasting away since February.