What I’m reading over coffee at 4AM. Chris Christie’s Pensiongate. A Bruce Rauner preview.

Election Day. Logan Square. 39th State Representative District. 4AM – I’m heading out to do poll watching this morning. I’m grabbing a quick breakfast of coffee and an english muffin with peanut butter. Need my protein.

I’m reading the article from The Nation on New Jersey’s Chris Christie and his corruption involving the state’s pension system. If you want to know what a Bruce Rauner administration will look like, you should read it too.

 

To watchdogs of state pensions, the Christie cronyism story is just the latest example of Wall Street gorging at the public trough. In Rhode Island, State Treasurer Gina Raimondo, a Democrat, has faced criticism for receiving political support from hedge funds that have been given large management contracts for the state pension program under her leadership.

“The huge increase in ‘alternative investment’ management fees over the past five years at public pensions has created multiple conflicts and potential for conflict,” says Tobe, a former whistleblower on fraud at the Kentucky pension fund and author of the book Kentucky Fried Pensions.

To other critics, the Christie administration’s management of the state pension program is characteristic of a governor who seeks to reward his friends, while sometimes ruthlessly punishing his opponents.

“This Livingston High School reunion thing that goes on with Chris Christie… David Wildstein, involved in Bridgegate—he went to high school with Chris Christie. Now you’re talking about Bob Grady—he goes back to high school with Chris Christie,” says Rosenstein. “He’s got these long-term relationships with people who then benefit enormously.”