Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 22, 1993 TAG: 9311220053
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE:
DATELINE: PHOENIX, ARIZ. LENGTH: Short
"Since there is nothing there, this election was fairly won and I will become the governor of the state of New Jersey on the 18th of January," Christie Whitman told reporters at a Republican Governors Association meeting.
Her campaign consultant, Ed Rollins, gave two days of sworn testimony last week to Democratic Party attorneys investigating his assertion that her campaign used $500,000 "walking around money" to discourage black turnout. Whitman narrowly defeated incumbent Gov. Jim Florio.
The day after telling the story at a breakfast with reporters, Rollins said he had made it up. Unconvinced, Democrats went to federal court and got a judge's permission to question Rollins under oath.
In the deposition, Rollins said he advised a campaign worker to tell black ministers disenchanted with Florio that there were ways the Whitman campaign could help them. He said he told the worker to tell the ministers they would be helping Whitman simply by not urging their congregations to vote.
But Rollins said he neither directed nor was aware of any campaign money used to pay ministers or to pay Democratic workers to be idle on Election Day - as he had said in his initial account.
- Associated Press
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in State edition.