Arts & Entertainment

'Me, Governor?' Richard Codey Tells (Almost) All

The former governor weighs in on his life in N.J. politics.

Richard Codey's new memoir is the tell-all Me, Governor?: My Life in the Rough-and-Tumble World of New Jersey Politics. On Saturday, the former governor and Democratic District 27 senator from Roseland (almost) told all about his childhood and politics at a book signing full of supporters and fellow politicians in Maplewood. 

Codey told tales of growing up the son of a coroner and working in the family business.

"My father was the county coroner which meant that any person who died unnaturally in Essex County, which you could imagine was quite a few, whether it be car crashes, murders, suicides, plane crashes, you name it, anything like that, meant that me and my brothers and my cousins had to go pick up the body.  Besides that, it was a great childhood."

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Speaking at a book signing at Words Bookstore, Codey was asked about his political allies, both friend and foe, to which the former governor did not hold back.

"What we have in the state of New Jersey, which unfortunately is endemic to my party, is political bosses who believe, 'Hey, I’ll give you a job, I’ll give you legal work, and then you do as I say.' And it’s wrong and it’s sad that you have people who are not legislators and not party officials dictating to people how they should vote in this day and age is unbelievable.  But if you don’t think it’s happening, I’ve got some swampland in Florida for you."

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Codey also addressed current events and issues facing the state during the informal forum.  He declared his support to return the income tax credit and his concerns about charter schools. He also weighed in on current Gov. Chris Christie’s recent helicopter ride to his son’s baseball game.

"You’ve got to be judicious about it.  Whether you are going to a political function or a non-governmental function, you’ve got to take it out of your political PAC or your own pocket or whatever.  And the other thing was, go land somewhere else.  I mean eventually he did the right thing (by paying the state back for the ride), but he didn’t say he did the wrong thing."

Following the 2004 scandal in which then-Gov. Jim McGreevey announced his resignation and that he was having an affair with a male staff member, Codey became the acting governor of New Jersey.

On Saturday, he finished off by explaining a conversation with former New York Gov. David Patterson about the one thing that made his whole governorship possible.

"I said to Dave, 'listen Dave, we didn’t have to campaign, we didn’t have to raise money, we just let two people have sex.' …  It goes to show you that you don’t need to participate in the act to derive pleasure from it."


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