Christie Could Declare Presidential Run Soon As Dallas Cowboys Gifts, Other Issues Prove Troublesome

As Gov. Chris Christie continues to deal with questions about his friendship with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and the role that played in the awarding of a Port Authority contract, the oft-mentioned potential presidential candidate is facing pressure to announce his intention to run in 2016 sooner rather than later.

The Washington Post is reporting that former Florida governor Jeb Bush announced his leadership PAC and super PAC Tuesday, which will is forcing other potential candidates -- including Christie -- to reconsider how and when they will jump into the race.

“People are going to have to commit earlier than they had expected, because the recruitment not only of donors but of organizational and political talent is going to be going at a pretty fast pace,” Fred Malek, a leading party fundraiser, told the Post.

The Post said Bush’s aggressive campaign moves have Christie preparing to make a public move toward running at the end of this month rather than waiting until February or March, according to a person familiar with discussions.

Meanwhile, Christie is facing questions about whether his acceptance of an all-expenses-paid trip to join Jones in his luxury box for Cowboys games is a violation of the ethics order he put forth in April 2010 by executive order.

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The Port Authority in March 2013 awarded the contract for development of the observation deck to Legends Hospitality, a joint partnership of the Cowboys, the New York Yankees and the Checketts Partners Investment Fund, and specifically cited the recommendation of Legends by Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in making the award, as first reported in the International Business Times on Tuesday.

According a report on NJ.com, that prompted the American Democracy Legal Fund, which the paper said is a left-leaning group with ties to Hillary Clinton, to file a complaint with the New Jersey Ethics Commission over the matter. The group says Christie’s action violates his own executive order regarding ethical behavior by public officials, the report said.

In April 2010, in an updated version of the Governor’s Code of Conduct, Christie signed Executive Order 24 stipulating that “all public officials must avoid conduct that violates the public trust or creates an appearance of impropriety,” NJ.com reported.

The NJ.com report also says Christie never sought advice from an advisory ethics panel specifically created to help governors avoid conflicts of interest, according to a former panel member and current Port Authority chairman, John Degnan.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Jones has supplied the tickets for three of the five Cowboys games Christie attended this season, including Sunday’s all-expenses-paid trip.

The former general counself for the Federal Election Commission told the Inquirer the gifts could give the appearance of improper conduct.

“We’re going to see. This is a lot of money, being paid for by somebody who is an owner of a team in the NFL. The NFL has wanted a lot of things in New Jersey,” said Larry Noble, former general counsel for the Federal Election Commission and now senior counsel with the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog group in Washington.

The gifts create an impression of buying or attempting to buy influence or favor, he said. “Ethics laws are very much about impressions and appearances,” Noble told the Inquirer.

The governor’s office has defended the trips, saying Christie and Jones are personal friends.

Susana Guerrero, whom Christie appointed executive director of the state ethics commission, told NJ.com she doesn’t believe the trips are an ethics violation.

But Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University and a professor of political science, told the newspaper site that Christie’s association with Jones raises questions not just about ethics, but optics, as the governor considers a run for president.

“There’s the question of [Jones] being something more than just a football team owner: The kind of people in that box, these are the kind of people with enormous influence in those [oil and gas producing] states and there’s the risk of him getting too close,” Zelizer told NJ.com. “It isn’t the image of independence that Christie likes to boast about.”

Meanwhile, Christie is faced with challenges to his campaign fundraising. The Washington Post report said Bush has cast himself as the same kind of pragmatic, reform-oriented center-right candidate, and that his aides are intensely courting Christie’s financial backers.

“The Bushes have been very effective at going at Republican donors,” former New Jersey governor Tom Kean told the Post. “They know that to a lot of people in the party, Jeb is the favorite son.”