According to a local watch dog, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie spent nearly $83,000 on concessions at Met Life Stadium over two seasons.
According to New Jersey Watchdog, the Garden State Republican — and potential 2016 candidate — spent $82,594 of his taxpayer-funded allowance on concessions at MetLife Stadium, the New Jersey complex where the New York Giants and New York Jets play, over the course of the 2010 and 2011 NFL football seasons.
I think we can stop pretending that Chris Christie is a viable presidential candidate, but I digress.
I am baffled by this report because I honestly have no idea how you can spend that much money on snacks over the course of just two seasons. Even if Christie attended every game (did he?) during that time period, it would mean he spent over $2000 at every single game on snacks. If he did not attend every game, the amount spent at each event increases dramatically.
We all know concessions are expensive, but that's a lot of beer and hot dogs.
The rest of the report released by the New Jersey Watchdog is equally amazingly.
In total, Christie spent approximately $300,000 of his state (taxpayer funded) allowance between 2010 and 2015 on food and alcohol; far more money than most people make over an equal period of time.
Christie also spent $102,495 of the money on “groceries and alcoholic beverages from retail stores,” the report found.
Over that time period, Christie spent $76,373 across 53 shopping runs at Wegmans Food Markets, $11,971 in 51 shopping runs at ShopRite supermarkets and another $6,536 across seven runs to ShopRite’s liquor stores.
I want to be clear that I am in no way concerned about Christie's weight or his shopping habits as it relates to that. I'm simply baffled and amazed by these dollar amounts.
Quick math says Christie spent about $1,400 every single time he visited Wegmans, and for me that begs the question: what the fuck was he buying? The entire deli? You would need half a dozen shopping carts, or perhaps some kind of flatbed trailer, to hold $1,400 worth of goods.
Obviously, some shopping trips could have actually been bigger than that while some could have been smaller.
Christie's state allowance is suppose to be used for official receptions and official business, but considering that the state Republican party reimbursed the state for the $83,000 in expenses at Met Life Stadium, I think we can safely assume that most of that expense could not be attributed to official state business.