By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
It’s beginning to look (and feel… brrrr!) a lot like Christmas outside, Save Jerseyans. Visit a retail store or turn on your television. Poor Thanksgiving…
It’s also beginning to look a lot like the 11th hour before a Christie presidential launch. The many tentacles of the Christie electoral octopus are returning home after helping generate 2014 GOP gains around the country, catching up and huddling close. Meanwhile, down in Boca Raton, Chris Christie and his inner circle are celebrating the RGA’s epic cycle and laying the groundwork for a near-term launch. I’m told from those folks in attendance that Gov. Christie is regularly discussed in the past tense at this year’s League of Municipalities convention in A.C.
Next up: on Wednesday, Robert Grady announced his resignation as chairman of the New Jersey State Investment Council. Who? A friend of the Governor’s going on 40 years, Grady is a major play in the private equity world and a veteran of the storied Carlyle Group.
Hungry for another scandal after Bridgegate news petered out, the media is reporting Grady’s departure by inferring that it’s symptomatic of a brewing scandal that they’ve been pushing for months. Meh. Not quite. First of all… if only they had paid more attention to all of the very real past abuses of past administrations!
Secondly, this is a prospective, not defensive, move by Team Christie. Grady can now proceed to raise money from Wall Street for a Christie presidential run without constant questions from investigative reporters concerning conflicts of interest in his capacity as the arbiter of N.J. pension investment decisions.