McGreevey officially resigns

Gov. James McGreevey submitted his official letter of resignation Monday, ending his tenure as governor three months after announcing his involvement in an extramarital affair.

The one-sentence letter, signed by McGreevey, was filed with Secretary of State Regena Thomas and informed her that his resignation would be effective as of 11:59 p.m. on Monday.

With his resignation, McGreevey also leaves behind his position on the University's Board of Trustees.

McGreevey's announced his intention to resign on Aug. 12. On that day, in an emotionally-charged press conference, McGreevey announced that he is "a gay American" who "engaged in a consensual affair with another man," and planned to step down on Nov. 15.

Though McGreevey never released the name of the man with whom he claimed to have a sexual affair, he has since been identified as Golan Cipel, a former homeland security adviser who reportedly threatened to sue McGreevey for sexual harassment.

Because he retired less than 60 days before the Nov. general election, McGreevey ensured that Richard Codey, president of the State Senate and a fellow Democrat, would become the next governor. Codey will serve the remainder of McGreevey's term until January 2006.

"I never wanted to be governor under these circumstances," Codey told reporters after being sworn in at his home on Sunday. "This is not the time for a big ceremony or a big swearing-in."

As governor of New Jersey, McGreevey was an ex officio trustee of the University and often used the privileges of his position to work out at Dillon gymnasium.

He was moderately active as a trustee and attended roughly half the board meetings. But his involvement with higher education went beyond his University position, said Vice President and Secretary Bob Durkee '69 said.

"Higher education was high on his agenda," Durkee said. "I think it was something he cared a lot about. I don't think he had as much success as he would have liked to have, but I think it was certainly something he worked on."

McGreevey made an effort to reorganize New Jersey's public research universities, including Rutgers, as three separate campuses of the same institution.

At the same time, he attempted to increase federal investment in New Jersey's science and technology programs.

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A significant portion of the money was slated for universities, including Princeton, Durkee said. But the consolidation was unsuccessful, which doomed the rest of the plan.

"He wasn't able to achieve the reorganization," Durkee said. "When that failed, the rest of the initiative was set aside."

McGreevey's resignation means his position on the Board of Trustees will remain vacant.

The University charter specifies that acting governors cannot hold the position, so it will not be filled until the next elected governor takes office in January 2006.

Until that time, Codey will hold a position of a different kind. Because New Jersey is one of only eight states without a lieutenant governor, he will continue to serve as president of the State Senate, effectively making him the head of both the legislative and executive branch.

Professors agreed that though the likelihood of abuse was small, the amount of power Codey will wield through 2006 is in many ways unprecedented.

"We have a separation of powers for a reason," said Jessica Trounstine, a Wilson School instructor. "Having an executive and legislative leader in two different hands is an attempt to check the power of the government."

The issue is more significant in New Jersey, the only state in which the governor is the sole statewide elected official.

Here, positions that are filled by elections in other states, such as treasurer and attorney general, are filled by appointments made by the governor.

"Everybody under the governor's cabinet in New Jersey serves at the governor's pleasure," said Ross Baker, a Rutgers political science professor. "It's a Madisonian nightmare."

The governor's power to appoint the other members of his cabinet was originally established to eliminate inter-party wrangling and speed up the legislative process, Baker said. Codey's dual titles may speed it up even more.

But don't count on it, Trounstine said.

"This may streamline the process of policymaking" in New Jersey more so than in the past, she said. "But that would probably be way too strong a statement to assume that anything like that is going to happen."