The governor of my state just resigned - it seems he has come out of the closet and admitted he is gay and that he had an extramarital affair. This affair is headed toward a harassment lawsuit.

Of course, he also has problems with accusations of bribery, so he wasn't going to keep his job anyway.

I don't understand why he would necessarily need to resign, though. I don't pay much attention to NJ politics so don't know if he's been doing a good job or not, but I hardly see infidelity effecting one's job - hey, Clinton stayed in office. I don't know. What I do find funny, in retrospect, is how he was against gay marriage in the state. A red herring I suppose.

I'm not familiar with him or the state of NJ - but all I read is that he was married with children and voluntarily resigning because if he stayed in office with his secret, it would leave the office "vulnerable".

He committed adultery. Is this really considered scandalous nowadays? Or is it only scandalous because of the gay factor? :rolleyes:

I'd like to see every politician guilty of adultery step down. There would probably be very few left.

He made his announcement one step ahead of a sexual harrassment suit that's to be filed against him tomorrow. I get the feeling that his announcement today was designed to take the wind out of that suit's sails and put him ahead of the plaintiff. This way, he might be able to avoid the months and months of political agony that Clinton put himself--and the country--through in the Lewinsky affair.
A big question is: will he be able to stay in office until Nov.15? NJ has no Lieutenant Governor, so if he sticks around, there'll be no special election, and the State Senate Majority Leader, a Dem, will succeed him. The GOP is going to be clamoring to put the governorship on the ballot before 11/15, just as the Dems demanded after Toricelli resigned.

All the details haven't come out yet, but from what I can figure, McGreevey was being blackmailed. There's something more (IMO) than just a harrassement suit going on here.

The alleged "partner" has some shady skeletons in his closet.

Agreed gents, there are a lot of political and personal ramifications here that we are not privy to, nor can fully grasp now.

NJ can't seem to get any political consistency or outstanding leadership in the Governor spot. I suppose Bill Bradley provided strong leadership in the Senate, but the Governors??? Do you think that Tony Soprano had a hand in any of this??

I think NJ has had pretty good senators in the past few years - Bradley, Lautenberg, even Corzine isn't too bad. Christie Whitman was a good governor - she pledged to reduce income taxes and she did.

I wouldn't have a problem with McGreevey coming staying in office if it was just adultery - gay or otherwise. It seems it is beyond that and a sexual harassment suit is being filed. He also has a big problem with a fundraising/influence peddling scandal.

The reason McGreevy resigned is not because of his his 'coming out', nor his extra-marital, adult, consentual affair with another man.

He is resigning because the lid is about to be blown regarding a sexual misconduct lawsuit, the placing of his Israili boy toy, in a security position for which he was completely unqualified. For those who haven't been paying attention to NJ politics...Jim McGreevy has sailed through several minor scandals since practically the day he was sworn in. This one was not going to go away while he bragged about reorganizing the NJDMV.

It's been suggested that the NJ Democratic Party has kept the former lover on their payroll for doing little more than nothing. Now, there's talk of the pending lawsuit. This resignation of McGreevy's is a well though out, well timed oust...as his own Party saw his chances for re-election would be slim. They do not want a Toricelli-esque last minute scramble. Now, with McGreevy's resignation not effective until Nov. 14th, they have a full year to introduce a brand new Dem candidate to run against Republican Brett Schundler (who should've beat McGreevy in the first place, had NJ voters posessed any brains)...
in November 2005.

What you are watching, folks, is the NJ Democratic Machine at work.

Apple

Whats is Governors McGreevy's favorite sign in New Jersey?

Now Entering Wayne.

Hey. New Jersey IS the "Garden State" after all...

The Governor's approval rating in NJ has gone up to 45% since his coming out!

I don't know much about NJ politics, but this puts McGreevy in NJ within the margin of Bush/Kerry on the national level!


As a New Yorker, I hate seeing NJ political ads/news on NY TV, but this one has been fun to watch.


http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-mcgreevey-poll,0,6006878.story?coll=sns-a p-nation-headlines

I know this is an old thread but McGreevey using this whole Gay thing as a shield for everything else. His whole governorship (if thats a word) has been shady and he has done nothing good for this state. There are MANY MANY things that will be unfolding over the next few months/years and no one is going to be stupid enough to really go after McGreevey the way they should. Why? Because who would put their career on the line by going after the "Gay Governor" who already went through so much.


And about the ads on ny tv, that is the only place for New Jersey to air them. We don't have our own local news stations so we need to air them on New York and Philly tv to get the message to NJ

yeah nothing about this state is any good