His resignation made national headlines. Now this ex-governor wants a second chance.

By Ry Rivard

Former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey takes part in a Q&A in 2013. | Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for HBO

‘A NEW OPPORTUNITY’ — The last time the political world paid much attention to Jim McGreevey was 2004, under dramatically different circumstances — he was coming out as gay and planning to resign as governor of New Jersey.

In a speech remembered for the line “I am a gay American,” McGreevey became part of American political lore as the country’s first openly gay governor — in an era when being gay was not as widely accepted as it is today.

Now, he’s back, running to be mayor of the state’s second largest city, Jersey City.

While McGreevey’s fall is often tied solely to his sexuality, he was involved in a mix of scandal at the time, most notably putting his male lover on the state payroll as a homeland security advisor in the months after 9/11 without proper credentials.

In the years since, McGreevey has focused on second chances for himself and for others. He went to seminary. And he’s worked for more than a decade to help prisoners reenter society. The pairing of his religious awakening and reentry work was the subject of a 2013 HBO film by Alexandra Pelosi, the documentary filmmaker who is also Nancy Pelosi’s daughter.

It seemed he’d sworn off politics, which he’s compared to an addiction. Until last week, when he asked for a very public second chance of his own.

McGreevey’s first campaign ad was titled, fittingly, “Second Chances,” a term that comes with double or triple meanings as the race gets underway. “When my grandparents came from Ireland they were looking for a second chance, a new opportunity,” he says in the ad. “And that’s what, God willing, this campaign is all about – a new opportunity for Jersey City.”

Sitting on the Hudson River’s so-called Gold Coast across from Lower Manhattan, Jersey City is one of the bluest cities in one of the state’s bluest counties. It’s also come to symbolize the state’s ethically challenged politics, having been ruled for three decades by the infamous mayor Frank Hague and seeing other elected officials sent to prison or admitting to corruption.

At McGreevey’s launch event last week, a solid two years before the mayoral election, religious themes were a major component. In an opening prayer, a local Baptist minister said McGreevey was “preordained” to be mayor of the city and asked God to “shut down” everything that stood in his way. (In an interview, McGreevey, who is Catholic, said he doesn’t believe anything is preordained, except a Democrat winning in Hudson County.) Later, when McGreevey was handed a cup of water, he joked it was holy water.

Reentry back into the community was another theme: The campaign launched at a Dominican restaurant run by Candido Ortiz, a former prisoner who President Barack Obama freed and who McGreevey helped find his footing. “He’s the best person that I’ve ever met in life,” Ortiz told reporters.

Now the question is whether voters see that side of McGreevey, or the other side as opponents and the media are sure to dredge up scandals past.

“This election is not about yesterday, it’s about our tomorrows,” McGreevey told reporters. “And candidly, I have made mistakes in my own life, for which I have apologized and own.” Two decades ago, he said, he was ascending the political ladder, now he’s, in his own words, over the hill and walking toward his grave hoping to finish life with what he called “eulogy virtues.”

For years, he’s thought about how he will be remembered. In his 2006 autobiography, he wrote, “History books will all say that I resigned in disgrace. That misses the point entirely. Resigning was the single most important thing I have ever done. Not only was I truthful and integrated for the first time in my life, but I rejected a political solution to my troubles and took the more painful route: penance and atonement.”

It’s too soon to say how he will be remembered, but for now, he’s back.

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— New Jersey first lady enters Senate race to replace Menendez: New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy, who has taken an active role in helping govern the state, is running in the 2024 Democratic U.S. Senate primary to replace the indicted Sen. Bob Menendez. The 58-year-old former Republican is the second major Democratic figure to declare her candidacy, following Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.). But she instantly becomes the frontrunner thanks not just to her husband’s position as governor but her long list of contacts with party leaders, for whom she’s spent the last six years as a prolific fundraiser.

— Nevada attorney general is investigating false electors who aided Trump in 2020: The attorney general of Nevada is quietly investigating Republican activists and operatives who falsely pledged the state’s six electoral votes to Donald Trump in 2020, despite Joe Biden’s victory in the state. In recent weeks, investigators have questioned witnesses about the attempts of the so-called alternate electors to present themselves as viable representatives of the states’ voters, according to three people familiar with the probe. Investigators have also asked about documents those people prepared as part of the effort.

— Johnson is a board member of a Christian publishing house that called ‘monkeypox’ a penalty for being gay: House Speaker Mike Johnson sits on the board of a Christian publishing house that suggested getting “monkeypox” was “an inevitable and appropriate penalty” for being gay and that former President Barack Obama was rumored to be the Antichrist because of his “leanings toward Islam.” For the last decade, Johnson has been a member of the board of Living Waters Publications, a Christian ministry and publishing house. The speaker has interviewed founder and CEO Ray Comfort on his and his wife’s now-deleted podcast. A spokesperson for Johnson said Comfort’s statements are “not a reflection of [Johnson’s] views.”

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MANCHIN MULLING — Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) inched closer Wednesday to confirming that he could run for president. "I will do anything I can to help my country, and you're saying, 'Does that mean you would consider it?' Absolutely," Manchin said in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker.

Manchin said he first has to explore whether there's an appetite among voters for a moderate candidate like him.

DEFYING THE DNC — There’s finally a date for New Hampshire’s 2024 presidential primaries: Jan. 23, reports POLITICO. The long-awaited announcement from Secretary of State David Scanlan on Wednesday firms up Republicans’ nominating calendar and officially puts the state out of compliance with Democrats’ preferred voting order.

Based on the GOP calendar, Jan. 23 was the date widely expected. It’s just over a week after Iowa’s Jan. 15 caucuses — enough time for New Hampshire to bask in the flood of post-Iowa campaigning. And it’s more than a week before South Carolina’s primary on Feb. 3, keeping in line with New Hampshire law that requires the Granite State hold its primary a week before any similar contest.

DIGITAL DEPARTURE — President Joe Biden’s campaign is mulling a significant change in its digital fundraising operation, testing alternatives to ActBlue, the powerhouse behind much of the Democratic Party’s small-dollar operation that blossomed during Donald Trump’s tenure.

A Biden campaign official told POLITICO that it has begun testing other Democratic donation platforms, including those run by NGP VAN and Action Network. One reason the Biden team is considering the switch is to look for ways to lower the cost of processing what will likely be the hundreds of millions of small-dollar donations that flow to the president’s campaign. The approach is in line with the campaign’s well-established frugality but also comes amid broader Democratic grumbling about the fees that ActBlue charges.

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President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping arrive for a meeting during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders' week in Woodside, California today. | Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

SUPERPOWER SUMMIT — President Joe Biden today kicked off his first meeting in a year with China’s Xi Jinping by stressing the need for the two superpowers to avoid conflict, an urgent call to ease tensions coming against a backdrop of global tumult, reports POLITICO.

Biden underscored the high stakes of the gathering held on the sidelines of a Pacific states summit, declaring “the world” was watching its outcome. The relationship between Washington and Beijing will be a defining one for decades, but it has frayed badly amid a growing threat of military conflict between the world’s two largest economies that has pushed relations to their lowest point in a half-century.

The need for candid conversations was echoed by Xi, who sat opposite Biden at a long conference table, both men flanked by senior aides. The Chinese leader nodded more directly toward the tensions between the two nations noting, through a translator, it had not been “smooth sailing” between Washington and Beijing. But, he said that dialogue was needed since “turning our backs on each other is not realistic.”

Xi also downplayed the need for competition, noting the inherent differences between the U.S. and China and that it was “not realistic for one side to try to shape the other” — perhaps a subtle push for Washington against interfering with Beijing’s objectives, including its policy toward Taiwan.

“Planet Earth is big enough for both countries to succeed,” said Xi, before the two sides began a closed-door meeting expected to last for hours.

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AI AT ANY AGE — The people training AI software from their homes may not even be old enough to legally work. Some of the world’s biggest tech companies, like Google and Microsoft, help train their AI through posting cheap tasks for anyone with internet access to complete, a job that has only increased since the pandemic. With few age verification tests and easy methods to bypass the ones that do exist, minors in Pakistan, Kenya, and other nations across the world are giving AI new data to learn from every day. But the job presents its own problems outside the ethics of hiring minors: Children and teens are often exposed to explicit images and content through working these jobs. Niamh Rowe writes in her story for WIRED how teenagers around the world are shaping AI of the future — for as low as a few cents an hour.

On this date in 1985: The Republic of Ireland's Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sign the Anglo-Irish agreement at Hillsborough House near Belfast, Northern Ireland. The agreement was aimed at bringing an end to the Troubles and gave the Irish government an advisory role in Northern Ireland's government. | Peter Kemp/AP

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Cancer takes away many things, but the most devastating is time. And while policies and federal research investment have helped avert 3.8 million cancer deaths since 1991, the fight against the country’s second most common cause of death is far from over. With over 609,000 deaths and 1.9 million diagnoses expected in 2023, there is still work to do in the fight against cancer. And that is where you come in.

When Congress prioritizes ending cancer as we know it, you literally make time for patients, loved ones, caregivers, and everybody else affected by 200 diseases known as cancer. By investing in the research of today, you’re helping prevent, detect, and treat many of the cancers of tomorrow, creating countless moments for cancer patients and their loved ones in the process.

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