New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is defending the state’s pension investments — and the people in charge of managing them. This comes as some of those transactions attract scrutiny amid pay-to-play allegations.
Last week, the AFL-CIO filed a complaint with the state's ethics board calling for an investigation into whether pension management fund contracts were being awarded to political donors to Christie and the Republican Party.
And earlier this week, New Jersey officials confirmed the state recently sold its $14 million stake in a venture capital fund connected to Charlie Baker, a Republican candidate for governor in Massachusetts, who made a $10,000 donation to the New Jersey Republican State Committee, which supported Christie’s re-election campaign.
But Christie said he’s completely hands off when it comes to the state’s pension investments. "I think it’s inappropriate for a governor to be involved in that. And I have not been involved one minute of one day since I’ve been governor in what they do over there," he told reporters.
The governor also responded to questions about Bob Grady, the chairman of the state's investment council. Bridgegate documents revealed that Grady attended weekly meetings with Christie's re-election campaign last year. Christie defended his friend of some 40 years, saying Grady received an "ethics clearance" to be involved in the campaign. He noted that Grady flies to New Jersey from his home in Wyoming on his own dime to oversee New Jersey's $81 billion in pension assets for free.
Meanwhile, Chris Santarelli, a spokesperson for the state's Treasury Department, said Grady and the State Investment Council's role is to oversee and certify investments, not choose them. (That task falls to the state's Division of Investment, which, he said, is staffed by career public servants who often span administrations). And while he said his department is currently reviewing the General Catalyst deal, "any reports or insinuations that politics are in any way involved in investment decisions are completely baseless."
