Todd Christie

The Mid-Atlantic Leadership Fund, a Washington-based organization with ties to Democrats, has purchased about $900,000 worth of New York and Philadelphia TV ads attacking GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie.  According to filings with the Internal Revenue Service, the political organization, which will not need to disclose their donors until July, is run by Sean Sinclair, a Democratic strategist who ran Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s 2004 re-election campaign.  The ad ties a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) complaint against Todd Christie, the candidate’s brother, to the award of a lucrative federal monitor contract to David Kelley, who as U.S. Attorney in New York declined to prosecute Todd Christie.

Reid served in the Senate with Gov. Jon Corzine.

Other names associated with the Mid-Atlantic Leadership Fund include: Amanda Flanary, a former Kentucky Democratic Party official; Mike Mikus, who worked for Mississippi Democrats in 2007, and Steve Bouchard, who ran Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in South Carolina.

There has been speculation for weeks that Democrats would seek to influence the Republican primary for Governor by spending some money to beat up on Christie, with the hope that he can boost Steve Lonegan's chances to win the GOP nomination.  A Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday shows Christie leading Corzine by seven points, although Corzine trails Lonegan by two points.

Todd Christie, left, the brother of GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie, and Rick Shaftan, right, the chief strategist for GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan

The Republican gubernatorial primary campaign between Chris Christie and Steve Lonegan has gotten personal before, but Lonegan’s chief strategist, Rick Shaftan, feels that some messages that Christie’s brother Todd sent to him through a popular social networking Web site crossed the line.

On April 6, Todd Christie sent Shaftan a private message on Facebook.com, writing “Can't wait to dance on your political grave.”

Three days later, Shaftan responded, “Lighten up dude. This is nothing compared to what's coming up. It just gets better!”

Todd Christie wrote back with what Shaftan took as an ominous message:  “This is fun for you messing with peoples lives. Payback comes in many forms,,,,at any time. Enjoy.”

According to Shaftan, that was the third and final exchange between the two men, who have both become lightning rods in the primary campaign -- Shaftan for his disdain for the state’s Republican establishment and brash on-the-record remarks, and Todd Christie for heading up a trading company whose practices ultimately brought sanctions from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“When I threaten people, I do it face-to-face -- never in writing,” joked Shaftan. 

When is a Prosecutor not a Prosecutor?

GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie, left, is greeted in the Golden Dawn by owner Chris Kurnellas.

HAMILTON – The floorboards of the Golden Dawn Diner are worn with the scuffling soles of many a politician on the move in Mercer County, and some of them are here today as a black bus with the words “Strong Leadership Now” emblazoned on its side, pulls into the parking lot and GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie descends to street level amid a wave of cheers. 

“He’s the right man at the right time,” Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo says in the glass-enclosed entranceway. “He’s tough, and he knows government.” 

Christie has his family with him as he plunges into a hoard of cameras and reporters intermingled with well-wishers and he drags them all with him as he trots up the diner’s front steps hearing the other cries come louder now from the sign-shaking Laborers International Union of North America protesters on Mercerville-Whitehorse Road: “Christie equals Bush! Christie equals Bush! Christie equals Bush!”

The 2009 gubernatorial campaign in underway in St. Paul, where two of the four potential candidates for Governor have a visible presence among Republican Party leaders attending the convention.  Biotech millionaire John Crowley sponsored a booze cruise down the Mississippi River last night – the first opportunity for many New Jersey Republicans to see the guy who teased them with a potential U.S. Senate candidate last spring.   And while U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie is not permitted to attend political events, his brother, Wall Street millionaire Todd Christie, has been working the delegation seeming support for 2009.  Former Bogota Mayor Steven Lonegan is not attending the convention (his most likely support won’t come from establishment Republicans who traveled to St. Paul), and there has not yet been a spotting of the fourth candidate in that race, Assemblyman Rick Merkt.

MINNEAPOLIS - The elevator doors in the Hilton opened and a man stepped off and headed for the bar.

"It’s Chris Christie’s brother," said a veteran newspaperman, staring at the familiar facial features of the newcomer in a scene that all evening took in a steady flow of New Jersey Republicans.

The white-haired, Chris-Christie lookalike made his way over to GOP operative Bill Palatucci, who was seated at the bar, and they began talking. He took an extended handshake from a stranger and acknowledged, "Yes, "I’m Chris Christie’s brother."

The word out the there among GOP sources is that Todd Christie is here to keep the idea firmly fixed in people’s heads that his brother, the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, is going to be running for governor next year.

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie can’t attend the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis next month – his job as a federal prosecutor precludes his attendance at political events – so he’s sending his brother to represent his interests as a potential candidate for the 2009 Republican nomination for Governor.  Todd Christie, the former Spear, Leeds & Kellogg CEO, will head a group of Christie supporters at the convention.