Leaders debate over ARC cancellation
Although Gov. Chris Christie cancelled the Access to the Region's Core project last week, the issue New Jersey politicians have with the controversial decision is far from over.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., launched an investigation last Thursday into the governor's decision to discontinue the ARC project, an initiative planned over the past two decades to build a trans-Hudson River tunnel.
Lautenberg said in a press release that Christie's move will plague New Jersey citizens for decades, damaging the ability to acquire transportation resources in the future for the state.
"It is critical that the public know what happened and how we can prevent this from happening in the future," he said in the release. "This investigation will root out the falsehoods and potential conflicts of interest surrounding the ARC tunnel and identify the motivations and factors that led to the project's demise."
Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the governor's office, said he does not know how much clearer Christie can be with the ARC project, adding that it seems Lautenberg is taking "the defeat" personally.
"New Jersey cannot afford to be on the hook with a blank check for this project stretching years into the future," he said via e-mail. "Sen. Lautenberg has been in Washington for too long and has clearly lost touch with New Jersey, its taxpayers and fiscal condition."
Although Lautenberg takes pride in the creation of the project, Drewniak said the construction of the tunnel would hurt rather than help some of the senator's closest constituents — New Jersey families.
"Perhaps the senator can explain why he is insisting New Jersey tax and toll payers fund 70 percent of a project while billions in federal funding pour out of Washington for high-speed rail lines in other states like Florida, which will pay only 20 percent of project costs," he said.
Despite the disagreement between Lautenberg and the governor, the investigation is ongoing and elements of Christie's decision are being examined by the state.
One focus of the investigation is the role of Department of Transportation Commissioner James Simpson and his work on the ARC project. Simpson supervised planning of the ARC project under former President George W. Bush, which breaks the New Jersey Uniform Ethics Code, according to the release.
The N.J. Uniform Ethics Code does not allow a state official to work on a project if he or she was involved with the same project for another government or private entity, according to the release.
The State Ethics Commission will investigate Simpson's role in the ARC project, which Executive Director Kathleen Wiechnik said is normal with an ethics case involving a member of government.
"If there is an allegation that a state official who is in the executive branch of state government has violated any provision of the Conflicts of Interest law, that is the basis for the State Ethics Commission to do an investigation," she said.
The commission follows an investigative process after the complaint is received, conducting interviews with all those involved with the case and reviewing related documents, according to their website.
"The case will be presented to the commission, and the commission makes the determination whether there are or are no indications of a violation of the conflicts law," Wiechnik said.
Drewniak said the governor's office is confident there was no conflict with the role of Simpson in developing the ARC project as they await the determination of the State Ethics Commission.
"Simpson self-reported to the State Ethics Commission, and then recused himself from further participation on the ARC steering committee. The reports to the governor came from the chair of that committee, James Weinstein, executive director of NJ Transit," he said.
It was the governor who made the decision based on the costs of the project and funding imbalance from Washington, Drewniak said.
John Weingart, associate director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics, said just as political motives played into Christie's decision to scrap the ARC project, the same can be said for Lautenberg's investigation, calling both political strategies.
"When an elected official calls for an investigation, most often that is a political tactic more than a real search for impartial information," he said. "He strongly believes that the governor's decision is wrong. I think calling for an investigation is a way of underscoring how strongly he believes that."
Weingart explained if Republican members were successful in taking over one house of Congress, a plethora of investigations would be initiated to review the decisions and policies of the Obama administration.
"It's not going to be about a personal feeling about Obama. It is going to be about their disagreement with policies of the administration, and they're using this as a way to draw attention to the disagreements," he said. "So I wouldn't say it is personal [for Lautenberg]."
Although politicians use investigations of policy decisions to shed light on their political views, this does not mean they are unsuccessful, Weingart said.
"Occasionally, an investigation does find some criminal malfeasance or finds procedures that were violated or that should perhaps be changed to lead to better decision making in the future," he said. "Most often, it's a way of drawing attention to a point of view [and] may result in more press coverage."
Weingart said although it seems Lautenberg voiced his concerns louder than his political constituents, and he is by no means the only person frustrated with the cancellation of the ARC project.
"It's a complicated issue, and I think most people don't have any particular feeling about this tunnel one way or the other," he said. "But Sen. Lautenberg is far from isolated just as Gov. Christie is far from isolated on this issue."
