Politics & Government

Codey Says Dems Tried to Quash GWB Investigation; Points To Norcross

Christie is known to cut deals with South Jersey political boss, Codey says.

State Sen. Richard Codey is accusing unnamed members of his own party of attempting to stop an investigation into the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal and protect Gov. Chris Christie, nj.com reports.

Codey (D-Essex) said there was an intense campaign by some Democrats to halt the investigation before it could get started, according to the report.

Codey didn’t name anyone specifically, although he did reference Christie deals with Democratic powerbrokers who are not members of the Legislature when he spoke to MSNBC earlier in the day.

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On Monday, reports surfaced that Christie struck a deal with South Jersey Democratic power broker George Norcross in which Christie agreed not to campaign against southern New Jersey Democrats. Christie didn’t campaign against State Sen. President Stephen Sweeney (D-Cumberland, Gloucester, Salem), and was said to be seeking his support in a possible 2016 bid for the White House.

In 2009, Norcross backed Sweeney in his bid to oust Codey as State Sen. President.

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Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson), the incoming speaker of the state Assembly, said he was not pressured to stop the investigation, according to the report.

While Assembly Democrats stated on Monday they would form an investigative committee to be led by Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), Sweeney announced the Senate would form its own committee, with Sen. Majority Leader Loretta Wienberg (D-Bergen) in charge. Weinberg said no one ever suggested investigating this matter was not a good idea, according to the report.


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