Additional accusations of political strong arming were made on Sunday against New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has already been embroiled in a scandal over manufactured traffic jams in New Jersey, Agence France-Presse reported.
Dawn Zimmer, the Democratic mayor of the Hoboken, claimed the Republican governor threatened to withhold money for Hurricane Sandy relief from her Democratic stronghold city unless she approved a redevelopment plan which he supported.
"The lieutenant governor came and very directly said to me that these two things are connected," Zimmer told CNN, speaking about a conversation she said took place last year. "The lieutenant governor pulled me aside and said essentially, 'you got to move forward with the Rockefeller project," she said referring to a planned 40-story office tower and commercial development in Hoboken.
"'This project is really important to the governor," Zimmer said she was told by Christie's lieutenant governor Kim Guadagno. "She said that this was a direct message from the governor.
"The bottom line is she came and she made a direct threat to me," she said Guadagno added, "If you tell anyone about it, I'll deny it'."
This comes as the latest example of alleged brass knuckles tactics used by Christie and his top aides against Democrats in his state, according to AFP. Zimmer first made these accusations on another television broadcast on Saturday.
Zimmer's charged were denied by a Christie spokesman, Colin Reed, who issued a statement to various US media outlets on late Saturday.
"Governor Christie and his entire administration have been helping Hoboken get the help they need after Sandy, with the city already having been approved for nearly $70 million dollars in federal aid, and is targeted to get even more when the Obama Administration approves the next rounds of funding."
According to AFP, Reed's statement added that in the past "the governor and Mayor Zimmer have had a productive relationship."
"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," Reed is quoted as saying.
When Hurricane Sandy slammed into the East Coast in October 2012, Christie was credited with the decisive leadership.
Christie, whose image has suffered as a presidential contender, admitted last week that his staff lied to him about their role in blocking commuter traffic onto a major bridge in an act of political retribution against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee New Jersey, AFP reported.
Federal prosecutors are investigating the scandal.
Claims that Christie improperly used tax payers' relief funds for personal political gain in the run-up to his 2013 re-election have also been made in a separate allegation by Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone.
In the wake of the bridgegate scandal, some polls show him taking a hit while others show him to have widespread support both in his state and across the nation, AFP reported.
