New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has been hitting the campaign trail hard this election season. The former U.S. Attorney, who has been mentioned as a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2012, appeared at dinners, rallies and other events in support of 19 Republican candidates from Massachusetts to Oregon since becoming his state’s governor in January, Congressional Quarterly reported Tuesday.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie stumps at a rally for Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker. (Creative Commons)
The candidates include:
- California gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman (who Christie infamously saved from a heckler).
- New Mexico gubernatorial nominee Susana Martinez.
- Ohio gubernatorial nominee John Kasich.
- Iowa gubernatorial nominee Terry Branstad.
- Illinois gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady.
- Wisconsin gubernatorial nominee Scott Walker.
- Michigan gubernatorial nominee Rick Snyder.
- Connecticut gubernatorial nominee Tom Foley.
- Pennsylvania gubernatorial nominee Tom Corbett, a former U.S. Attorney.
- Maryland gubernatorial nominee Bob Ehrlich.
- Massachusetts gubernatorial nominee Charlie Baker.
- Minnesota gubernatorial nominee Tom Emmer.
- Oregon gubernatorial nominee Chris Dudley.
- Senate nominee Linda McMahon in Connecticut.
- Senate nominee Marco Rubio in Florida.
- House nominee and former U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan in Pennsylvania.
- House nominee Mike Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania.
- Rep. Charlie Dent in Pennsylvania.
- Rep. Jim Gerlach in Pennsylvania.
Christie has also campaigned for all New Jersey Republicans campaigning for seats in the House, and will grace the Indiana Republican Party’s annual fall dinner Tuesday night.
Members of the FBI community on Tuesday came out in support of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special agent on trial for murder in the Virgin Islands.
Konrad Motyka, president of the FBI Agents Association, which includes about 12,000 current and former agents, called on the Virgin Islands Superior Court to throw out the case against ATF Special Agent William G. Clark, who claims he shot and killed a neighbor in the U.S. Caribbean territory in self-defense. Motyka said his organization “stands firmly” behind the ATF agent.
“Special Agent Clark’s actions were in accordance with established rules and policies, and as such, the shooting was ruled justifiable by the ATF Shooting Incident Review Board (SIRB),” Motyka said in a statement. “Despite this, Special Agent Clark was charged with Second Degree Murder by the Attorney General’s Office in the U. S. Virgin Islands.”
Clark faces charges stemming from the fatal 2008 shooting of Marcus Sukow during a domestic dispute between the man and his girlfriend. Clark’s trial began Monday. (Read our four-part series on the case here.)
The ATF removed its agents from the Virgin Islands in November 2008 amid growing frustration with territorial authorities. There were about four agents in the territory.
Harry Rodriguez, an FBI spokesman for Virgin Islands operations, told Main Justice that the FBI has kept agents stationed in St. Thomas and St. Croix following the fallout from the Clark case. But he declined comment on the number of agents in the territory.
Motyka said federal agencies with a presence in the Virgin Islands have advised their agents to be especially careful if the interact with territorial law enforcement officials.
“This is out of concern that their officers may not be able to perform their duties safely if they can be charged for crimes in that Territory in the commission of their sworn duty,” Motyka said. “This only hurts the citizens of the Virgin Islands.”
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Speaking in Orlando at the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) conference Tuesday, Attorney General Eric Holder unveiled a new Justice Department program aimed at improving the safety of on-duty law enforcement officers.
The DOJ has set aside $800,000 to develop training and technical assistance programs under the new Preventing Violence Against Law Enforcement and Ensuring Officer Resilience and Survivability (VALOR) initiative, Holder said.
The program will train law enforcement officers how to deal with high-risk situations.
“Through VALOR and related efforts, the department will support much-needed research and analysis of violent encounters, and officer deaths and injuries,” Holder said. “And we’ll use this information to provide law enforcement with the latest information, and most effective tools and training, to respond to a range of threats – including ambush-style assaults.”
In addition to the VALOR initiative, the Bureau of Justice Assistance awarded nearly $500,000 to IACP to help launch the Center for the Prevention of Violence Against the Police, designed to “serve as a clearinghouse for information on emerging trends and best practices in reducing officer injuries”, according to the Attorney General.
Holder also announced the expansion of the DOJ’s Smart Policing program to six new sites. The Smart Policing program targets a crime problem that can be replicated by law enforcement agencies nationwide.
Altogether, the DOJ has committed more than $40 million for officer safety programs in 2010, Holder said.
Since last October, 163 officers have been killed in the line of duty nationwide, an increase after a 50-year low reached last year when 48 law enforcement officers were murdered while on duty.
The National Rifle Association and Congress have limited the growth and authority of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, The Washington Post reported Tuesday as part of its investigation into illegal guns.
The Justice Department agency has faced immense pressure from the gun lobby and members of Congress over the last few decades that has kept agency from obtaining the type of power wielded by the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Marshals Service. The ATF has had only 2,500 agents since it separated from the Internal Revenue Service in 1972, while its sister agencies secured at least 49 percent more agents over the last 39 years, according to The Post.
But the ATF also faces other obstacles.
The agency isn’t allowed to computerize gun ownership records, hasn’t had a confirmed leader since 2006 and faces myriad restrictions that slow down and complicate its efforts to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.
“We were always given just enough food and water to survive,” Michael Bouchard, former ATF Assistant Director for Field Operations, told the newspaper. “We could barely just keep going. The ATF could never get that strong, because the gun lobby would get too concerned.”
The NRA denied to The Post that it ever lobbied against increasing the ATF’s resources.
Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislature Action, said his organization supports ATF efforts to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. But he said the agency must not put an undue burden on law-abiding gun owners and dealers.
“We have not always agreed with some of the ATF’s priorities,” Cox told the newspaper. “We want to help ATF focus on its core mission … which is finding, apprehending, arresting and punishing people who break the law.”
Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy Christopher Schroeder, has been appointed to run a new White House working group focused on the internet and privacy.
The Privacy and Internet Policy Subcommittee, a part of the White House Science Council, will be composed of members of several agencies and will seek to “monitor and address global privacy policy challenges and develop approaches to meeting those challenges through coordinated U.S. government action,” according to a White House blog post.
The subcommittee will focus on innovation policies and privacy practices in the federal government, the blog post said.
Schroeder, a former Duke University law professor, will co-chair the group with Cameron Kerry, General Counsel at the Department of Commerce.
