By MICHAEL R. SISAK
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — Twenty years after resigning as New Jersey’s governor and gorgeous the political world as he declared “I am a gay American,” Jim McGreevey is again on the marketing campaign path, working for mayor of the state’s second-largest metropolis.
McGreevey, a Democrat, is considered one of seven candidates in a nonpartisan race to interchange Steven Fulop as mayor of Jersey Metropolis, simply throughout the Hudson River from Manhattan.
He’s working, he mentioned, as a result of he’s involved that the town of his delivery is at a “tipping point,” with pricy downtown high-rises elevating housing prices, younger folks struggling to seek out employment and what he says are underperforming faculties.
“This is not a cathartic exercise,” McGreevey informed The Related Press in an interview forward of Tuesday’s election. “I’ve done that long ago. That was done 20-plus years ago. This is to make Jersey City better. To improve services. To balance the budget. To be responsive to familial needs.”
McGreevey’s opponents embody two metropolis council members, a Hudson County commissioner, a metropolis police officer and the previous president of the town’s board of training. Fulop isn’t looking for a fourth time period.
If no candidate receives greater than 50% of the vote, a runoff election will probably be held Dec. 2.
Opponent: I by no means needed to ‘resign in disgrace’
McGreevey’s resignation is etched in New Jersey political lore.
In a televised speech on Aug. 12, 2004, McGreevey mentioned, as his spouse and fogeys regarded on, that he was quitting as a result of he had engaged in an extramarital affair with one other man. With that revelation, he grew to become the nation’s first overtly homosexual governor.
The circumstances of McGreevey’s exit have been extra difficult than his merely popping out. The person McGreevey had been concerned with was Golan Cipel, a former Israeli naval officer he had appointed because the state’s homeland safety adviser in 2002.
Cipel, who met McGreevey in Israel and labored for his marketing campaign as a Jewish neighborhood liaison, was not certified for the $110,000-per-year place, partially as a result of, as an Israeli citizen, he couldn’t get hold of the mandatory U.S. safety clearances.
Cipel stop a number of months into his tenure and threatened to sue McGreevey for sexual harassment, hastening the governor’s resignation. Cipel has denied that any affair occurred, saying he was the sufferer of McGreevey’s “repeated sexual advances.”
A few of McGreevey’s opponents within the mayoral race have argued that his conduct as governor ought to disqualify him with voters. One rival, metropolis council member James Solomon, argued that McGreevey’s run is an extension of corruption that he claimed contaminated his time as governor.
One other rival, former faculty board president Mussab Ali, mentioned at a latest debate: “I have never had the experience of having to resign in disgrace.”
“My opponents may care about what happened 20 years ago,” McGreevey mentioned. “Folks in Jersey City are worried about their rent today, worried about the children’s individual education plan today. They’re concerned about the fact that the street is dirty or that there’s a sewer break on Montgomery (Street).”
McGreevey: ‘This would be a great closing act’
Jersey Metropolis is the place McGreevey’s grandfather moved after leaving Northern Eire, and the place his father took him for meals on the VIP Diner — a time capsule the place the pay telephones nonetheless work.
Jersey Metropolis mayoral candidate Jim McGreevey talks at a neighborhood occasion on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, in Jersey Metropolis, N.J. (AP Picture/Andres Kudacki)
Jersey Metropolis mayoral candidate Jim McGreevey, middle, greets attendees at a neighborhood occasion on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, in Jersey Metropolis, N.J. (AP Picture/Andres Kudacki)
Jersey Metropolis mayoral candidate Jim McGreevey leaves throughout a neighborhood occasion on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, in Jersey Metropolis, N.J. (AP Picture/Andres Kudacki)
Jersey Metropolis mayoral candidate Jim McGreevey serves meals to attendees at a neighborhood occasion on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, in Jersey Metropolis, N.J. (AP Picture/Andres Kudacki)
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Jersey Metropolis mayoral candidate Jim McGreevey talks at a neighborhood occasion on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, in Jersey Metropolis, N.J. (AP Picture/Andres Kudacki)
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And it’s the place McGreevey, 68, who now runs a jail reentry nonprofit, want to end his once-promising political profession by managing a metropolis of almost 303,000 residents with a municipal price range of about $700 million.
“This would be a great closing act,” McGreevey mentioned, an American flag pin on his lapel. “And candidly, to get the city in the right place, it’ll require some time.”
McGreevey mentioned he’d way back made peace with being out of politics. He obtained divorced, attended an Episcopal seminary, earned a Grasp of Divinity diploma, volunteered at a Harlem ministry and took steps to develop into a priest earlier than pivoting to nonprofit work.
As government director of the Jersey Metropolis-based New Jersey Reentry Company, he mentioned he has seen the issue previously incarcerated folks and veterans have discovering housing and employment.
McGreevey launched his marketing campaign on Halloween in 2023 and posted a video quickly after acknowledging his previous. The title: “Second chances are central to who I am.”
His run has drawn parallels to a different ex-governor on the lookout for a second probability. Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned after being accused of sexual harassment, is working for mayor of neighboring New York Metropolis.
McGreevey: ‘I enjoy people more. I enjoy politics a lot less’
McGreevey mentioned his absence from public life has given him a perspective on how politics has modified and develop into extra polarized.
A former prosecutor and head of the state parole board, McGreevey entered politics in 1990 as a member of the state meeting. Earlier than changing into governor in 2002, he was mayor of Woodbridge Township, a suburb of about 103,000 residents.
“When I was a young Assemblyman, we would campaign hard on the Democratic ticket, but then, after I was elected, you would work with Democrats and Republicans on committees, on legislation,” McGreevey mentioned. “My sense is today, whether it’s the city or the state or the nation, almost everything is viewed through a political lens as opposed to a governmental lens.”
Twenty years away has additionally modified McGreevey, he says.
“I enjoy people more. I enjoy politics a lot less,” he mentioned.
Whether or not sufficient folks like McGreevey and his politics sufficient to present him that second probability will develop into clearer within the weeks forward.
