N.J. Dems call on Christie to rebid contracts linked to political group

Democratic leaders in the New Jersey Legislature want the state to cancel contracts with companies that have donated money to Reform Jersey Now. That group has been promoting Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s policy agenda.Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono and Assembly Majority Leader Joe Cryan say the contributions were an attempt to get around the state’s pay-to-play laws that prevent state vendors from making political contributions to receive contracts. Cryan says the Democrats are urging Gov. Christie to rebid those contracts.”He should set the example. He should cancel the contracts on these folks,” said Cryan Thursday. The “money, by the way, tallies in the hundreds of thousands of dollars used in political campaigns and clearly in violation of the spirit of the law and what it was intended to be.”Buono agreed that the governor should cancel contracts with the construction companies, engineers and law firms that make the contributions.”The governor holds himself out to be a paragon of virtue when it comes to high ethical standards and certainly this tarnishes that image significantly,” she said. “It’s an opportunity for the governor to regain the higher ground on this issue if he accedes to our demand to just put them out to bid again.”A spokesman for the governor had no comment on the Democrats’ request.