McGreevey pressed to step down early

But McGreevey now faces further fallout with political opponents and some commentators saying he played a gay victim card, presenting himself as a complex man struggling with complex sexual feelings, to avoid the more familiar New Jersey taint of political corruption.
“My truth is that I am a gay American,” McGreevey told journalists at a packed news conference last Thursday, asking forgiveness from his wife who stood beside him during the announcement, and saying that each person must confront their “unique truth” in the world.
McGreevey’s unique truth this week is that he could face a charge of sexual harassment from the Israeli man with whom he is said to have had an affair, and whom McGreevey sought to appoint to high administrative office in New Jersey on a $110,000 a year salary.
Golan Cipel, 35, has since fled to Israel and claimed he is heterosexual. McGreevey had wanted Cipel to be in charge of New Jersey’s Department of Homeland Security, a position he was unfit for because he was not a U.S. citizen.
Republican Party politicians have demanded that McGreevey resign immediately, saying that his resignation date, Nov. 15, is yet more sleight-of-hand, because under the state’s electoral laws, that keeps the governorship in Democratic hands until 2006.
But more ominously for McGreevey came the news that some of his own party officials are working to oust him as quickly as possible — he faces increasing pressure from within his own Democratic Party to leave immediately so U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine can run for governor in a special election. Corzine, who is known to covet the governor’s chair, will nevertheless face pressure to remain in the Senate, where he is chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
As of Tuesday afternoon, however, reports indicated that Corzine was in New Jersey holding meetings with state Democratic Party officials.
And in Trenton, it has been rumored that McGreevey was susceptible to a plan that would see him leave office prior to Sept. 3, opening the way for another Democrat, possibly Corzine, to run for the governorship. The plan is said to include a financial package, including a legal defense fund, to ease McGreevey’s transition to civilian life.
Tri-state newspapers have since reported that McGreevey’s sexuality was an open secret in New Jersey political circles for years.
McGreevey took office in January 2002 and was immediately faced with a $5 billion budget deficit, which he closed without raising sales or income taxes. He also focused on stem cell research, created domestic same-sex partnerships and ushered through the legislature a so-called millionaire’s tax.
His administration has also, however, been under pressure with an ongoing investigation into the activities of a prominent party fundraiser and close friend of McGreevey, Charles Kushner. Kushner has been charged with interfering in a federal campaign-finance investigation by luring a grand jury witness into meeting a prostitute and videotaping the encounter.
Within hours of his resignation speech last week gay bars in Hoboken had begun to serve a new cocktail, the McGreevey, containing vodka, Malibu and pineapple juice. The socially liberal state, which has seen an in increase in gay couples moving to settle there, also registered a definite if brief uptick in McGreevey’s approval rating after his speech.
McGreevey is the second U.S. governor to resign in weeks following the resignation in June of Connecticut GOP Gov. John Rowland amid corruption investigations and threats of impeachment.
If McGreevey’s plan to resign on Nov. 15 goes ahead, N.J. Senate President Richard Codey will once again become acting governor, and he will be the sixth governor of the state since 2001. They have been: Christine Todd Whitman 1994-2001; Donald DiFrancesco, acting governor 2001-2002; John Bennett, acting governor 2002; Codey, acting governor 2002 and McGreevey 2002-present.