TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie said he’ll give Democrats documents related to the state’s failed bid for Race to the Top education funding Wednesday — but they shouldn’t expect an open book. Christie Tuesday said he reserved the right to invoke executive privilege, which shields the governor from open records laws, despite an understanding reached Monday with Senate President...
Gov. Chris Christie at the Statehouse in Trenton in this February 2010 file photo.TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie said he’ll give Democrats documents related to the state’s failed bid for Race to the Top education funding Wednesday — but they shouldn’t expect an open book.
Christie Tuesday said he reserved the right to invoke executive privilege, which shields the governor from open records laws, despite an understanding reached Monday with Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) that he would provide papers Democrats wanted.
Last week, Democrats said they did not receive all the documents they requested from the governor’s office and threatened to use subpoenas to force the administration to provide them. They canceled a vote Monday to give a Senate committee subpoena power after Sweeney met with the governor.
But Christie, a Republican, denied making a “deal.”
“We’re still asserting executive privilege,” he said. “We’re going to turn over those documents which we believe are appropriate to turn over. If there are areas that we believe are covered by executive privilege, we’ll assert them and we’ll go from there.”
Democrats are investigating the state’s bungled application for up to $400 million in federal education funding. Last month, the state lost points — and the money — in part because a wrong answer was substituted for a correct one. The mistake and its aftermath led Christie to fire Bret Schundler, his education commissioner.
This week, Christie and Sweeney had what the governor described as an amicable conversation.
“All I agreed to (Monday) was a date certain to turn over the documents to the Senate that (Senate Majority Leader) Barbara Buono has requested,” Christie said. “I said, ‘How about Wednesday?’ He said, ‘Okay.’ And that was it.”
Sweeney declined to comment on the conversation.
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