Some newspapers following the doings of New Jersey Governor Chris Chritie are not looking kindly on the Atlantic City "investment” of their governor

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The Philadelphia Inquirer and Trenton Times both editorially blasted the governor; the Inquirer in an editorial titled 'Christie’s Casino' and the Times in a piece headed 'Revelry With Taxpayers’ Money.'

Both items referred to Christie’s state financial support for a private hotel and casino in Atlantic City, the Revel, a multi-billion-dollar project which has sat unfinished for two years. Christie has decided to pump $261 million of state money into finishing the project, with the state retaining a 20 per cent interest in the hotel and casino when it is finished.

The Times not only questioned the wisdom of that move, but raised the issue of it “shortchanging the rest of the impoverished city, which has been only an afterthought since gambling began.”

The city’s mayor, Lorenzo Langford, did not attend the governor’s festivities earlier this week announcing the “investment.” He presumably was troubled, not only by the state moving in with its “tourism district,” but with Atlantic City having to pay for policing it.

The Inquirer editorial also said the Revel project “prompts the question of why the governor is so willing to invest the state’s money in the casino industry while standing by as horse racing slowly moves out to pasture.” It is a valid, legitimate question that calls for an answer.

A former gubernatorial candidate in New Jersey, Steve Lonegan, now state director of Americans for Prosperity, sent a letter to the state attorney general, Paula Dow, asking her to investigate the participation of Richard Tolson in the voting process for state financing of the unfinished Revel.

Lonegan says Tolson represents a conflict of interest because he not only is a member of the Economic Development Authority Board that approved the money for the Revel, but also is a director of the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers of New Jersey and vice president of the New Jersey State Building Trades union, both of which will benefit from a resumption of Revel construction. State Senator Jim Whelan, former mayor of Atlantic City, called the charges “ridiculous.”

(Harness Tracks of America)