Posted on 12/21/2004 10:10:52 AM PST by BATNF
TRENTON -- It's hard not to like acting Gov. Dick Codey. He's down-to-earth, funny and anything but a show horse. He acknowledges, as a member of the Legislature for 31 years, he shares responsibility for the way things are screwed up. Refreshing.
He has a plain way of speaking reminiscent of President Harry Truman. Former Gov. Jim McGreevey complained New Jersey wasn't getting its share of anti-terrorism money from the feds. Codey says, "We're getting hosed."
McGreevey stood behind an oh-so-trendy acrylic podium and bristled if reporters dared defile it with their tape recorders. Codey returned to using the wooden podium and waits to speak until reporters can put their machines on it. Substance over appearances.
But can Codey change the course of a state so steeped in public pocket-picking and ripoff?
I'm willing to give him the benefit of more time -- he's only been acting governor for a little more than a month. But there are troubling signs.
For one, Codey's administration has a lot of McGreevey holdovers. Some are worthy, others aren't. Perhaps he cut a deal with McGreevey to keep the losers they can't find a patronage pit for. Codey wasn't elected governor, but by being governor he owes his allegiance to the people, not McGreevey. He should remember that.
Newest clown: Now that McGreevey has moved on, the nation has another New Jerseyan to laugh at -- Bernie Kerik, former New York police commissioner and almost Homeland Security chief.
First time I noticed Kerik he was in Trenton to tell the Senate Judiciary Committee what a swell guy Joseph Santiago was. Santiago, McGreevey's choice to head the state police, left the job in disgrace after numerous scandals.
Yeah, that's the same Senate committee that can't find time to ask Attorney General Peter "See No Evil" Harvey why alleged mobster Angelo Prisco got out of prison under unusual circumstances right after McGreevey became governor. We will remind 'em again.
Back to Codey: Like his predecessor McGreevey, Codey is actively supporting Sen. Joe Doria, D-Hudson, for the $195,000 job as president of Ramapo College.
They've worked together for a long time and Codey may think Doria is the best man for the job. But, the college has a search committee that started with 95 applicants and ended up with five. Doria wasn't one of the final five although he was interviewed twice. Let the committee do its job and hire a scholar with appropriate experience, not a political hack.
Doria is a life-long public trough-swiller, a 25-year Legislature member. He currently double dips as a state senator ($49,000 annually) and the mayor of Bayonne ($72,000 a year). Ah, the things they give up for public service! The president's job would bring great rewards in state pension payout -- every career trough-swiller's dream.
There is some indication the Codey and McGreevey appointees to Ramapo's trustee board may try playing politics -- like postponing the search and nominating an interim president. And guess who that would be? Or, they could refuse to hire the search committee's choice.
Probably most people reading this aren't close to Ramapo politically or geographically. But think about this -- if pols can get around a duly organized search committee at Ramapo they can do it to the school near you. Colleges should be about striving for the best whether it's educating students or selecting people to be president.
Interfering with academic freedom to help a career trough-swiller raise his retirement income is not in the public's interests. Perhaps Codey owes Doria favors. Perhaps he wants Doria to owe him. Whatever, Codey should distance himself from this one if he wants to be remembered as a reformer and not the run of the mill career pol.
Untimely delay: The next activity that made folks wonder what Codey is about was when he, as Senate president, delayed a Senate vote on two pay-to-play reform bills. The next voting session is in February.
Pay to play is the system of legalized bribery where contributions result in no-bid government contracts. It costs taxpayers plenty, through cost overruns and projects that don't need to be done in the first place.
Codey says he pulled the bills from a vote because of concerns the state could lose federal highway funds if it became law, strange as that is. But some political insiders feel if Codey wanted to force a vote in the Senate, he could have.
Codey has been up front about the need to do something to save New Jersey's Highway Trust Fund. He said this time next year he will be looking for new sources of funding. And while he didn't say that means an increase in New Jersey's fuel tax, he said the move would come during the lame duck period between the November election and the Legislature's new session, in January.
McCormac magic: I ran into Treasurer John McCormac, one of my favorite people in the Statehouse, and asked him if he were working on pulling another rabbit out of the hat for the third straight budget. "It's the fourth, but who's counting?" he said.
"There won't be a fifth," he added. Remember where you heard it first.
Bob Ingle is Trenton bureau chief for Gannett New Jersey newspapers. He can be reached via e-mail at bobingle@app.com.
from the Asbury Park Press
Published on December 19, 2004
Think Codey is putting together support for his run for Governor.
This Codey is just a place holder for the coronation of Jon Corzine. There SHOULD have been an election for the truncated term of governor of New Jersey this last November, but McGreevey was playing the party card right to the last.
Well, those folks always have had a flair for the decorating! : )
The non political appointee members of Ramapo's search committee are incompetent, example one, outgoing college president Rodney Smith. Totally incompetent, hired by the warm and fuzzy feeling crowd cause of his skin color, a man who truly has failed upward in the academic administration career field.
Ramapo, where Libertarians kiss Corzine's arse regularly, and the environmental sciences buildings were turned into a quickie mart and high density condo complex. Where Moseley Braun was a commencement speaker. Where there was a hard cap on Caucasian-American applicants accepted.
A political hack would be a refreshing jolt of energy to the place, the facade of academia would be absent when his lips are moving.
Bump to the Top.
Codey has been DOria’s major backer for decades.
Joseph Doria’s home was searched by the FBI and IRS BEFORE Corzine asked Doria to resign his position in Corzine’s cabinet.
BY doing so Doria will be able to retain his state pension. A Pension stolen from victims and rendered to their oppressor, enforced by a criminal enterprise and the business end of hired guns.
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