McG’s legacy mired in controversy
CHARLES WEBSTER, Staff Writer11/08/2004
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TRENTON -- He ran for office as a centrist Democrat -- shadowing former President Bill Clinton’s popular political views.
But critics say Gov. Jim McGreevey is leaving a liberal legacy of needles for heroin junkies, votes for felons, psychologists for inmates and support for the notion that the justice system railroads minorities into prison.
Couple that with McGreevey being the first U.S. governor to come out of closet, although he opposed gay marriage, he did support domestic partnerships.
"He’s not a moderate Democrat -- he’s a lefty and he’s a liberal," said Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce, R-Parsippany-Troy Hills.
"When do you start to determine one’s legacy? After they leave or when they indicate they are leaving?" asked Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Lawrence.
"Overall I think he can be proud of those things that he did accomplish, but regrets that he won’t be able to accomplish more of what he wanted to get done."
Republicans say McGreevey’s liberal leanings were first only apparent in the appointments of Corrections Commissioner Devon Brown, Attorney General Peter Harvey, and others.
Brown has made headlines with his assertion that the New Jersey prison system maintains a "plantation mentality."
While Bonnie Watson Coleman, McGreevey’s hand-picked choice to lead the Democratic State Committee, and Harvey, have been very vocal in their support for winning voting privileges for convicted felons.
And Albio Sires, McGreevey’s hand-picked choice as Assembly Speaker, took the point in the campaign to raise income taxes on residents to shield McGreevey from any criticism.
But McGreevey’s liberal leanings have come more into focus this year with several new laws and executive orders -- notably signing a domestic partnership law, and an executive order to let cities give away free needles to drug users.
But critics point to his facade as a fiscal conservative, and the new taxes and fees imposed under McGreevey’s leadership, as the real proof of a liberal bent.
"He is a tax and spend character," DeCroce said.
Since taking office McGreevey has asked for and gotten 57 new or increased taxes, fee assessments and surcharges.
That new tax burden is coupled with a 2005 state budget that was declared unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court.
"Unfinished business. That’s the real legacy of Jim McGreevey," said Sen. Tom Kean, Jr., R-Westfield. "This is a administration came into office with a great deal of promise, but nothing major, or of substance, has been tackled with this administration."
McGreevey ascended to the governor’s office on a promise to change the way business was done in Trenton. A promise critics insist was never fulfilled.
Two months ago McGreevey stepped into the spotlight to announce he was a "gay American" had cheated on his wife with another man and would abandon his office.
This afternoon, a lame duck McGreevey will say good-bye, and walk off into the sunset.
The governor’s speech is expected to focus on what he considers are the positive aspects of his short-lived tenure in office, but critics say the speech will ignore the real legacy of a failed, misguided public official who is leaving under a cloud of suspicion and in utter disgrace.
"Jim McGreevey is going to be ultimately seen as a catalysis for change in New Jersey because he proved beyond a shadow of doubt there is change needed," said Bret Schundler, the former Jersey City mayor who lost the 2001 gubernatorial election to McGreevey.
"We’ll actually get constitutional changes and systematic reforms because of the failures of his administration. People are no longer going want to trust politicians because of Jim McGreevey."
McGreevey’s 34-month tenure has been riddled with federal investigations and questions about his dealings with appointees and donors.
Almost immediately after taking office in January 2002, McGreevey was dogged by scandal and federal investigations.
Within the first year of his term, McGreevey’s former chief of staff Gary Taffet and former chief counsel Paul Levinsohn was the subject of a federal probe into their dealings with billboards during the governor’s transition period. There have been no indictments in the case to-date, but earlier this year Taffet was fingered for insider trading by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Within months of arriving in the governor’s office McGreevey was swatting away questions about his choice of Golan Cipel as the state’s anti-terror czar.
Then the news hit that McGreevey had accompanied Cipel in picking out a West Windsor condominium, and the questions of the governor’s sexuality began to take center stage with the media.
By August 2002, Cipel was out the door with a private sector job secured by McGreevey pals.
The first summer of his term, McGreevey came under fire for a trip to Ireland at taxpayer expense that included a lavish party for distant relatives to the tune of $105,000. The Democratic State Committee eventually reimbursed the state for the cost of the shindig.
With each new investigation came a new poll showing McGreevey’s support slipping away. Other investigations followed, but it came to a head this summer.
Earlier this year, the charges of corruption within the McGreevey administration started to take root.
Charles Kushner, who bankrolled McGreevey’s gubernatorial campaign, became the subject of a federal investigation into illegal campaign contributions. Kushner was later fingered in a sex-with-hookers-on-videotape scheme to thwart the original investigation.
Then this summer, McGreevey fund-raiser and childhood friend David D’Amiano, was named in a federal indictment alleging he brokered a deal with a "state official No. 1" to get a larger payoff for a Morris County farm.
The indictment fingered "state official 1" for using the code-word "Machiavelli" to reassure a Morris County farmer that he was in on the scheme.
McGreevey admitted to being the unnamed "state official 1" in the D’Amiano indictment, but denied any wrongdoing.
"His legacy is corruption," said Assemblyman Richard Merkt, R-Mendham. "He’s put in the most corrupt administration since Harold Hoffman."
A reference to the governor who took a personal interest in the Lindbergh baby murder trail, and later admitted in a deathbed note that he had embezzled a huge sum of money from state coffers.
"No matter what [McGreevey] attempts to do to put words in the minds of the media, I don’t think his legacy will be something to be excited about," DeCroce said. "I do believe the state will turn around. It’ll be tough, and some hefty decision will have to be made in the governor’s office."
After McGreevey steps down Senate President Dick will become acting governor to fill out the remaining 14 months of McGreevey’s term.
Many are putting their hopes behind the 30-year veteran state lawmaker to squelch ethics troubles and pull the state up from its national joke status.
"Dick Codey is a much better man. He’ll attempt to do a much better job. That alone will help us forget Jim McGreevey," DeCroce said.
©The Trentonian 2004 |
