The mayor of Hoboken claims senior aides to Gov. Chris Christie withheld hurricane relief funds because she wouldn’t approve a development project he supported.
Democrat Dawn Zimmer said yesterday that Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and another Christie staffer demanded she push forward a redevelopment plan by the politically connected Rockefeller Group or risk losing Superstorm Sandy recovery money.
“The bottom line is that the lieutenant governor came to Hoboken, pulled me aside in a parking lot, and made it clear that Sandy aid was contingent on moving ahead with the Rockefeller development,” Zimmer told The Post.
“She knew that it was wrong and even said so,” Zimmer added.
Zimmer requested $127 million for Hoboken but said she only received $200,000 in recovery grants, plus $142,000 for a backup generator. The state had about $300 million to disburse statewide.
Zimmer, a longtime ally of Republican Christie, wrote to the governor on May 8 for help with flooding issues.
“Please Governor, we need your help,” Zimmer wrote in a letter obtained by The Post. “I have tried to assure Hoboken residents that Hoboken would be treated fairly.”
Zimmer said Christie never responded, but Guadagno met her at a public event at a ShopRite days later.
“She pulls me aside … and says that I need to move forward with the Rockefeller project,” Zimmer wrote in a May 13 diary entry. “It is very important to the governor. The word is that you are against it and you need to move forward or we are not going to be able to help you.”
Zimmer claims Christie aide Richard Constable gave her a similar warning on May 17 during a public TV special.
According to another diary entry, Constable said, “I hear you are against the Rockefeller project … If you move that forward, the money would start flowing to you.”
Christie spokesman Colin Reed denied the allegations, which were first reported by MSNBC.
“It’s very clear partisan politics are at play here as Democratic mayors with a political axe to grind come out of the woodwork and try to get their faces on television,” he said.
The accusations are the latest against Christie, who faces state and federal probes over the George Washington Bridge lane closures — as well as an audit over his use of recovery funds for tourism ads that feature his family.
New Jersey Assemblyman John Wisniewski, who is leading a state probe into “Bridgegate,” said he would look into Zimmer’s charges.
“The allegations … are serious and yet again raise concern about abuse of government power,” Wisniewski said.