A New Jersey court has ordered Gov. Chris Christie's administration to release its list of 2,500 press contacts, following a suit by a watchdog group in the Garden State.
Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson denied the governor's request for reconsideration on Aug. 7, reaffirming a May 29 order and setting a deadline to release the list by Aug. 17 to New Jersey Watchdog.
The suit was brought under the state's Open Public Records Act, and followed an earlier suit by WNYC, which was allowed to view the list but not receive a copy.
The Christie administration argued that its "Gov News" list was proprietary information that would give the watchdog group an unfair advantage over reporters and news organizations lacking the info.
Christie press secretary Kevin Roberts said in a court filing that a recipient of the list "could extract tremendous value from it," including using it to distribute his or her own news for financial benefit. He offered to allow the group to view the list in the press office, rather than give it a copy.
Jacobson cited a court filing by North Jersey Media Group, a large newspaper publisher in the state, countering Roberts' arguments about the value of the list to be persuasive. The judge also chided the Christie administration for its request to reconsider the ruling and said the governor's motion "contradicts the spirit of the Open Public Records Act."
The watchdog group, which has been critical of Christie's 16-staffer PR operation, lost a second part of its suit, however, as the court denied access to the governor's security expenses related to his out-of-state travel while running for president.
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