Chris Christie's 10 Point Plan to Battle Corruption

With Polls showing him in a solid lead, Christie is capitalizing on his greatest asset, the corruption of the Democrats:

Christie's plan promises legislative and policy changes in 10 areas:

1. Eliminate dual office holding: The plan states, "Dual office holding is simply wrong. Grandfathering" these conflicts for current dual office-holders in the Legislature, as was done by Governor Corzine, was another timid action by a politician afraid of upsetting Trenton's powerbrokers.'' Christie said he would attempt to end the practice in New Jersey through legislation immediately after taking office.
2. Eliminate dual public employment: "Double-dipping politicians must stop taking advantage of the state and its funds by simultaneously holding salaried elected positions and government jobs. One publicly funded job and pension is plenty.'' Christie said he would ban the practice of one person holding a full time government job while also holding a salaried elected position.
3. Require forfeiture of public pensions for corruption convictions: "When public officials betray the public's trust by participating in acts of corruption, they forfeit their right to receive benefits. Christie said his administration would require any elected or appointed official convicted of a crime connected to their official position to forfeit their pension benefits.''
4. Require strict disclosure of conflicts of interest in the Legislature: "Good governance requires transparency. To build public trust, part-time legislators must submit to strict and complete disclosure of any conflicts of interest due to outside employment and income.'' Christie said he would propose legislation requiring members to either recuse themselves from actions affecting their private sector interests or disclose these interests prior to voting on piece of such legislation.
5. Establish an elected state auditor to be an independent watchdog: "New Jersey needs a public watchdog independent of the interests of the governor or the Legislature and accountable to the voters.'' Christie said he would seek an independently elected auditor with broad authority to investigate all levels of government and to consolidate other ineffective watchdog agencies under this office's control.
6. End pay-to-play for everyone: "The partisan politics which exclude certain groups, such as labor unions, from pay-to-play restrictions enforced on other interest groups have deepened public cynicism.'' Christie said he would remove partisan politics from the issue by proposing legislation to extend the pay-to-play ban to all groups at all levels of government.
7. Strictly prohibit the use of campaign funds from criminal defense costs: "The citizens of New Jersey do not contribute to political campaigns with the intention of funding the future criminal defense of corrupt politicians.'' Christie said he would fight to explicitly prohibit any public officeholder from using campaign funds of any kind to pay for costs associated with criminal defense proceedings.
8. Suspend all public officeholders charged with a crime: "Allowing public officeholders to vote on legislation and to receive a public salary while they are under indictment creates a public spectacle and is an embarrassment to New Jersey.'' Christie said he would propose legislation to immediately suspend any public officeholder charged with a crime and, if convicted, require the forfeiture of their office.
9. Require a new, detailed annual disclosure form of all public officials: "Public officials should be required to disclose the same information as federal officials to give a more detailed picture about their financial interests.'' Chris said he would fight to change the current disclosure form to provide greater transparency to New Jersey voters.
10. Require mandatory forfeiture of convicted officeholders' campaign accounts: "Convicted public officials should have no say over the money contributed to their campaigns in good faith by the citizens of New Jersey.'' Christie said he would attempt to have the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) seize the campaign accounts of convicted officeholders with any remaining funds being donated to New Jersey charities at ELEC's discretion.

Some really good ones, especially the limits on use of campaign funds to pay criminal defense fees. By the way the Democrats response to this was say the name "Bush"!