By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
Chris Christie told last week’s CPAC gathering that he planned to give up The New York Times for Lent.
I suspect he’s still abstaining after today’s coverage of the ExxonMobil settlement, Save Jerseyans, including a guest op-ed from the former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Bradley Campbell. Alleging that the Governor’s chief counsel, Christopher Porrino, drove the settlement negotiations rather than the Attorney General’s office, Campbell directly accused Porrino of having “inserted himself into the case, elbowed aside the attorney general and career employees who had developed and prosecuted the litigation, and cut the deal favorable to Exxon.”
Press Secretary Kevin Roberts struck back. Hard.
“Baseless allegations concerning the State’s proposed settlement with ExxonMobil were published today in the New York Times based on comments from a known partisan, Bradley Campbell (a many-time Democratic appointee who worked for the Clinton Administration and McGreevey Administration),” Roberts noted in a statement.
“The notion that this settlement represents something less than what is fair for New Jerseyans is absurd and baseless when you consider the facts of the settlement and Campbell’s prior comments on this case,” he added, pointing out that today’s announced $225 million damages settlement (not pre-announcement, baseless partisan-motivated speculation, a point I made yesterday on WNYC radio) is hardly unreasonably small.
Want proof? Here you go:
In May 2006, after a state judge ruled in New Jersey’s favor against ExxonMobil (remember: this expensive litigation is many, many years old), Bradley Campbell reportedly told the Star Ledger that damages “could run into hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Why does Mr. Campbell think the price tag of the settlement stinks today?
When a 9-figure settlement was perfectly acceptable in 2006?
Good question!
“Campbell’s attacks are even more irresponsible, disingenuous, and baldly political when you consider that as DEP Commissioner, Campbell projected Exxon’s liability could run into the ‘hundreds of millions of dollars’ and said the case would likely have a reasonable basis to be settled, rather than fully litigated,” Roberts added.
One more gem: between 2002 and 2005, then-DEP commissioner Campbell settled 267 separated NRD cases for the grand total sum of… drum roll, please… $29.4 million.
The media really needs to start screening this stuff before running with it, Save Jerseyans. In case they haven’t noticed, Chris Christie isn’t in danger of winning the Republican nomination as of today. Call off the dogs. Sloppy, biased reporting like this is pure overkill.
Legalize the weed! Fatboy!
Another example of mainstream media outlets being nothing more than the PR firm for the Democrats to brainwash the uneducated voters
How about David Sirota’s articles with mention of Exxon contributing to the RGA and to the AEI where Christie and other cons were at in Georgia this past week?