Less than a week after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie became embroiled in the George Washington Bridge scandal, the possible 2016 Republican presidential hopeful finds himself facing another political controversy.
CNN reports that federal officials are investigating whether Christie used Superstorm Sandy relief funds to produce "Stronger Than the Storm" tourism ads that starred the governor and his family.
According to the report, federal investigators are looking at the state's use of $25 million in relief funds to promote tourism at the Jersey Shore after the devastating storm.
The news of the probe follows on the heels of the bridge scandal, but the issue was first raised last summer, when New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. sent a letter asking the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to look into bidding process used by Christie for the marketing campaign — specifically the governor's decision to award the contract to a proposal that was $2.2 million more expensive than one from a competing firm.
"These taxpayer-funded television ads feature the governor and have been aired in New Jersey and surrounding states during his reelection cycle," Pallone wrote in the August 2013 letter addressed to David Montoya, the department's inspector general. "However, the proposal from the less expensive firm that was not chosen during the bidding process did not propose featuring the governor in the ads.
“The fact that this particular proposal was chosen despite an obvious conflict of interest, in addition to the higher costs, raises serious concerns with the entire process," Pallone continued. "I fought hard for passage of the Sandy aid package in Congress by assuring our colleagues that this funding was critical to our recovery and that it would be spent responsibly without waste, fraud and abuse."
