McGreevey To Head Jersey City Jobs Commission

Stonger Than The Scorn

Former Governor Jim McGreevey is back in government service, according to a report in The Jersey Journal.

Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop appointed McGreevey to the position of Executive Director of the Jersey City Employment and Training Commission.  The commission is apparently a new venture of Fulop’s who made job creation and the establishment of a re-entry program for ex-offenders a major plank of his recent election campaign.  There is no information about the commission on the city’s website.

Fulop’s spokesperson, Jennifer Morrill, did not know what McGreevey’s salary will be when we asked her. She promised to get back to us with that information and whether or not the job is pensionable.

UPDATED: Morrill said that McGreevey’s salary is $110,000.  The commission is an independent authority, which is why there is no information about it on Jersey City’s website.

MMM first speculated that McGreevey could be on his way back into public life last May when former So. Carolina Governor Mark Sanford was elected to Congress.  When former Congressman Anthony Weiner and former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, both of whom, like McGreevey resigned their offices in sex related scandals, reentered the political arena with their candidacies for New York Mayor and Comptroller, respectively, speculation that McGreevey could have a political future became more widespread.  The Gay American told the Star Ledger’s Tom Moran earlier this week that politics brings out the worst in him and that he would not seek elective office again.

“No, never,” McGreevey says. “I’ve made that decision. It doesn’t work. It’s not where I believe I’m at my best.”

If this sounds like an alcoholic vowing to stay away from whiskey, that’s about right. Politics, he says, bring out the worst angels of his nature. It still has its allure, but he is determined to stay sober.

“When I was mayor of Woodbridge, it was just the local VFW, the barber shop, the five-and-dime,” he says. “It was close to the ground, with families and people and a sense of community.

“And what happens when you move up, at least when I moved up, is you become much more removed. And it becomes about money and influence and power and political ink. It’s more charged, and less civil, and more cutting.”

As for Weiner and Spitzer, McGreevey makes no judgment. Maybe they can handle their booze. “I only have respect for both them,” he says.

Two days later he accepted the job from Fulop.  He’s not done yet.

Posted: July 12th, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: 2017 NJ Gubernatorial Politics, Jim McGreevey | Tags: Anthony Weiner, Eliot Spitzer, Jennifer Morrill, Jersey City, Jim McGreevey, Mark Sanford, Steve Fulop, Stronger Than The Scorn | 2 Comments »

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