Baker Facts is launching a new “Charlie for Charlie” campaign to highlight the New Jersey pay-to-play scandal that has ensnared Charlie Baker. Our new video follows the money as Baker donates $10,000 to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s Republican State Party and New Jersey’s pension fund then places $15 million in a fund controlled by Baker’s venture capital firm. What do the VC guys do? They direct some of that money to a company part-owned by Baker.
For more information on Charlie Baker’s record of putting himself first, visit BakerFacts.com. The site also highlights how Baker:
· Pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars by simply sitting on corporate boards.
· Borrowed money for the Big Dig finance scheme just to make room for a tax cut his boss wanted during his re-election campaign.
· Blew off a third of all meetings of the state education board, missing crucial votes on failing districts, charter schools and bilingual education.
Steve Crawford is the spokesman for Baker Facts, a project of the Massachusetts Independent Expenditure Political Action Committee that was created to provide reliable fact-checking throughout this year’s gubernatorial campaign. For additional information on Republican Charlie Baker’s record, please visit BakerFacts.com. All material is fully researched, with source material provided.
Patrick says
Baker’s people offered Mark Fisher $1,000,000 just to drop out. That was pay not to play. Why isn’t that news?
John Tehan says
$10K isn’t a lot of money, but it was enough for Christie to steer $15 million back to Baker. Long story short: not only is Chris Christie for sale, but you can buy him at K-Mart “flashing blue light special” prices!
SomervilleTom says
Chuck Turner was sentenced to three years incarceration for taking a ONE thousand dollar bribe.
We don’t know what other aspects might have been involved in the deal. We don’t know if future “contributions” are promised. We do know that $10K is enough money to get the attention of New Jersey authorities.
By the way, there’s a typo in the name of the committee at the end of the ad (I presume it’s a “Political” committe).
Christopher says
…but isn’t making a ton of money for sitting on corporate boards both routine and legal?
kbusch says
That’s my understanding too.
While it might be possible to outrage people who don’t know just how routine and legal it is, BakerFacts risks some credibility by elevating this to the level of scandal.
Christopher says
…but an example of how one might be out of touch. If you can pull down that kind of money just for attending a few meetings a year you might not really be in tune to the plight of the rest of us?
centralmassdad says
This is different, how?
johnk says
Now that you made the Christie connection. Now the next part is Chris Christie’s Republican Governors Associate and the $1,350,000 Ad buy they did for Charlie.
Bernstein did a nice write up on the cover up trying to hide the buy behind a PAC front group. Commonwealth Future. Christie funneled the entire buy through the Mass sounding PAC and stuck Beth Lindstrom’s face at the end.
You’ll see the buy on the OCPF Independent Expenditures
johnk says
n/t
kbusch says
1. Did Gov. Christie directly influence the investment of pension funds, or was there some kind of objective procedure by which Baker’s firm was chosen?
2. Was the investment Baker’s firm made in one of Baker’s projects something announced in the prospectus, or was there some deviousness involved?
3. Did the Baker’s firm’s investment in Baker yield higher or lower returns than other assets in their portfolio?
Right now, this feels as if there could be something here, but it’s mostly just innuendo. Patrick remarked that the donation was pretty small. A $15 million investment isn’t particularly large for this kind of thing either. I’d much prefer a campaign that looked at Baker’s plans for Massachusetts and his screw-up of Big Dig finances. Massachusetts voters aren’t going to care all that much about New Jersey pension investments unless something criminal — or really close to criminal — emerges.
Steve_Crawford says
We’ve got lots of information about Baker’s Big Dig Financing – http://bakerfacts.com/?by=big-dig