On Last Day in Office, McGreevey Keeps Out of Public Eye
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TRENTON, N.J. – Three months after his nationally televised disclosure of a gay affair, Governor McGreevey stayed out of the public eye yesterday, submitting a one-sentence letter of resignation and spending his final day in office away from the state Capitol.
Meanwhile, Senate President Richard J. Codey, who takes over today as acting governor, said he was ready to put a “new face on New Jersey’s government and hopefully, after a while, New Jersey residents are going to like it.”
Mr. McGreevey’s signed resignation letter was delivered by a member of his legal staff to Secretary of State Regena Thomas at 9:15 a.m.
“Dear Madam Secretary, I resign effective 11:59 p.m. on Monday, November 15, 2004. Sincerely, James E. Mc-Greevey,” the document read.
A version of the acting governor’s oath of office, signed by Mr. Codey, also was delivered to Ms. Thomas yesterday. Mr. Codey took the ceremonial oath the night before during a private gathering at his home in West Orange.
State Senator Raymond Lesniak, the governor’s longtime friend, said Mr. McGreevey used yesterday to clear his remaining belongings from Drumthwacket, the governor’s mansion in Princeton.
He also tended to some lingering transition issues before spending time with his parents, both of whom are recovering from illnesses. Mr. Lesniak did not specify their ailments.
Mr. Lesniak spent Sunday night with Mr. McGreevey, 47, for one of their regular prayer meetings.
“Obviously, he’s not happy about the circumstances, but he’s also looking very much forward to the new life of the person he has come to be based on his sexuality,” said Mr. Lesniak. “He feels free of the pain and burden he had due to the feelings he was sup pressing.”
The senator would not comment on what Mr. McGreevey’s wife, Dina Matos McGreevey, did yesterday.
The governor reportedly will move into an apartment in Rahway, while his wife and their 2-year-old daughter plan to live in a house in Springfield.
Mr. Lesniak said Mr. McGreevey, a Democrat, intends to volunteer with a national education foundation, working in New Jersey to help disadvantaged students.
Mr. McGreevey’s departure comes three months after the August 12 news conference during which he declared he was a “gay American” and had engaged in a consensual affair with a man, whom he did not name.
Members of his staff later identified the man as Golan Cipel, an Israeli national hired by Mr. McGreevey to be his homeland security adviser before the appointment drew intense media scrutiny and Mr. Cipel was reassigned.
Mr. Cipel, 38, has been in Israel since Mr. McGreevey’s August 12 announcement. His New York lawyer, Allen Lowy, reiterated yesterday his client’s assertion that Mr. McGreevey had sexually harassed Mr. Cipel and that there was no consensual sex.
“Golan is doing well. I don’t know when he plans to come back, but he does plan to come back and resume his life and career here,” Mr. Lowy said.
For his first day as acting governor today, Mr. Codey planned to attend a breakfast at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Parsippany, followed by a late-morning Statehouse news conference at which he was expected to announce the formation of a task force on mental illness.
Mr. Codey, 57, a longtime champion of mental health causes, called the state’s mental health system “dysfunctional and disjointed.”
“It needs to be fixed. It’s not working for the people I care about,” he said.
Mr. Codey, a Democrat, said government ethics reforms and a projected $4 billion deficit in the next state budget will also command quick attention.
He said it was too soon to say whether he will run for a full, four-year term next year.
“After the last couple of months the people of this state have endured, the last thing they need is a governor, who wasn’t elected as governor, being governor saying, ‘I want to have this job for another four years.’ Everything I would do would be viewed in a political context,” he said.