Gov. McGreevey resignation shakes University

Gov. James McGreevey's announcement Thursday that he is gay and will resign shocked a student who had worked for him and roused campus political commentators.

By office, McGreevey is a member of the University Board of Trustees and kicked off his inauguration with a prayer at the University Chapel in January 2002. He works out at the University gym.

"My first reaction is one of shock," said Rishi Jaitly '04, a newly elected member of the University's Board of Trustees who worked for McGreevey last summer in his events office. The governor later appointed him to a state commission on higher education.

"I think it shows a lot of personal guts and courage. He's a man of real principle and conviction," Jaitly said.

In a deeply personal address, McGreevey spoke of a life of tortured identity, saying he felt confused and apologizing for the "pain and suffering and anguish" he caused his family. "My truth is that I am a gay American," he said.

McGreevey, who will be replaced by fellow Democrat and State Senate President Richard Codey, said he would leave office Nov. 15.

His spot on the board of trustees will stay vacant until a new governor takes office in 2006, said Vice President and Secretary Bob Durkee '69.

McGreevey was an "engaged and supportive trustee" who took an interest in the University's diversity efforts and science and technology programs, Durkee said.

The College Republicans and Democrats, otherwise engaged in national politics this summer, looked back at New Jersey this week.

They agreed McGreevey should resign, but cited different reasons.

"He did the right thing and he shouldn't have had to do it. Like it or not, our country is still hostile to homosexuality," said College Democrats president Jay Saxon '05.

The College Republicans said the governor's sexual orientation did and should not directly prompt his resignation.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

"Honestly, sexuality is not something that bears on public policy decisions," said College Republicans president Evan Baehr '05, who is running for a spot on the Princeton Borough Council.

McGreevey's reasons for his resignation surprised other political observers, who had focused on fund-raising scandals that had dogged the governor in recent weeks.

McGreevey's appointment of an Israeli, Golan Cipel, as an advisor on homeland security also received scrutiny because of Cipel's apparent lack of relevant experience.

Cipel left his post eight months into his job, and news reports Thursday indicated that he was the man with whom McGreevey had an affair. It was also suggested that Cipel had threatened a sexual harassment suit against the governor.

It is these points about corruption in government – not McGreevey's sexual orientation – that are important, said Carl Mayer '81, a Princeton political activist and author of "Shakedown: The Fleecing of the Garden State."

McGreevey's homosexuality is a "personal issue between the governor and his family," Mayer said. "But the political issue of the blackmail by his lover, the patronage handed down to his companion, and the political timing of it — these are all things are deeply unsettling to New Jersey citizens."

Observers agreed that the resignation points to deeper political issues.

"The resignation part doesn't make any sense on being gay. It's not a violation of public office," said Stephen Macedo, a professor in the Wilson school and director of the Center for Human Values. "All of this suggests that there's more going on."

Mayer called the governor's speech "politically expedient and politically insulting to the citizens of New Jersey because he didn't once address the true reasons for his resignation."

If McGreevey chose to resign before Sept. 2, as Republicans are demanding, a new election would have be held.

"If [an election] were held earlier, it would be devastating for the Democratic Party," Baehr said.

But campus Democrats say it is the Republicans who are playing politics.

"He's going to be open to partisan attack, no matter what you do," Saxon said. "If he had resigned effective immediately, [critics] would have said that you allowed the new incumbent a leg up in November."

Baehr said the admission Thursday sheds new perspective of some of the governor's prominent political initiatives, including his strong support of New Jersey's new domestic partnership law.

"You have to go back and think more about how Governor McGreevey personally understood these types of policy decisions, now with the hindsight that he is homosexual," Baehr said.

Saxon slammed that position.

"It's akin to saying [it's hypocritical to have] a black governor advancing the rights of blacks," he said.

Jaitly, who respected the governor very much, hasn't changed his mind.

Before the announcement, "I would have said, 'Jim McGreevey is a very talented politician with a great future ahead of him,'" said Jaitly. "And I still believe that.

"Don't underestimate the willingness of people to respect personal courage."