He launched his marketing campaign at a Dominican restaurant on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, run by somebody who went by a prisoner reentry program. There, McGreevey spoke in regards to the metropolis’s issues, about redemption and second possibilities.
He stated: “This election shouldn’t be about yesterday, however about our tomorrow.” “And admittedly, I’ve made errors in my life, and I’ve apologized for them and acknowledged them. However ask the households I’ve served, ask these I’ve labored with in state and native authorities and in re-entry – and they’re going to say frankly that Jim McGreevey works lengthy and onerous to convey in regards to the change that’s wanted.”
However when requested why he was returning to politics now, his first reply was easy.
“It is spelled STACK,” McGreevey stated, referring to Brian Stack, a state senator and mayor of close by Union Metropolis who’s a significant power in Hudson County politics.
Stack stated he spent a yr and a half attempting to persuade McGreevey to run.
“I simply felt like he had lots of gasoline within the tank and he was prepared for this, and that is the appropriate time for him and a greater time for Jersey Metropolis,” Stack stated in an interview.
McGreevey could enter the race with Stack’s assist however the discipline is not going to be empty. The elections is not going to be earlier than 2025
County Commissioner Invoice O’Dea plans to announce his candidacy later this month. Jersey Metropolis Council President Joyce Waterman advised Politico she’s going to run. Jersey Metropolis Councilman James Solomon is strongly contemplating a run as effectively.
The race is nonpartisan and there can be no major, that means Election Day is a vacation for 2 full years.
Town’s present mayor, Steven Fulop, shouldn’t be in search of re-election so he can run for governor in 2025.
McGreevy and Flop have a tough previous. Fulop kicked him out of town’s re-entry program and McGreevey referred to as it retaliation. Fulop has not endorsed a successor, though he’s within the place of creating associates whereas working for governor, so there could also be little level in choosing favorites and making enemies.
However distinguished allies additionally attended McGreevey’s announcement, together with Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney, who stays a significant union determine and can also be contemplating a run for governor.
However that outdoors assist and McGreevey’s itinerant profession are prone to be points within the race. Whereas McGreevey’s household has roots in Jersey Metropolis, he was mayor of Woodbridge, in Middlesex County, earlier than going to Trenton as a state legislator after which governor.
O’Dea stated his marketing campaign could be “in regards to the folks,” not “something about my satisfaction,” a jab at McGreevey. He additionally requested how a lot outdoors backers would assist in Jersey Metropolis’s elections.
“This can be a double-edged sword,” O’Dea stated. “Folks on the town say, ‘I am sorry, I did not know so-and-so lived in Jersey Metropolis.'”
For his half, Al-Sayegh stated he usually helps different mayors.
McGreevey’s previous is bound to face extra scrutiny. Though he’s usually remembered for quitting as a result of he was, in his phrases, “a homosexual American,” there are different points at play.
His downfall was a slow-burning scandal involving Golan Sibel, an Israeli citizen. McGreevey had employed Sipple in 2002 as a homeland safety adviser regardless of his lack of {qualifications} and incapacity to acquire a federal safety clearance. The hiring raised questions in regards to the relationship between the 2, however McGreevey denied there was an affair.
McGreevey and Sibel continued to have a secret relationship till it soured. In July 2004, Sipple’s attorneys threatened to sue McGreevey for sexual harassment. McGreevey claims he was blackmailed, however he nonetheless confronted a reckoning. In August of that yr, he admitted to having an extramarital affair and resigned
in Launch video Within the marketing campaign launched Thursday morning, McGreevey referred to as on folks to provide him a second likelihood. The theme extends by his life from Drumthwacket, the governor’s mansion. He wrote a guide referred to as “Confession.” He was the main focus of an HBO documentary referred to as “Fall on GraceHe has spent the previous decade or so engaged on reentry packages, together with working New Jersey Reentry Corp., a Jersey Metropolis-based nonprofit that’s separate from the one from which Fulop fired him.