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Junkie
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I don't agree that his sexual preference has no bearing. Precisely because he is gay - and married, with 2 kids - is why they're turning this into such a media feeding frenzy. Republicans in NJ are calling for his resignation immediately. Its a big deal in NJ politics.
Quote:
The Man Who Toppled a Governor
A casual introduction in Israel 4 years ago would prove to be McGreevey's undoing
Friday, August 13, 2004
BY JOSH MARGOLIN AND MARK MUELLER
Star-Ledger Staff
The seeds for Gov. James E. McGreevey's stunning announcement yesterday that he is gay and that he will resign in November were planted four years ago at an elegant political reception in Israel.
It was at a performing arts center in Rishon Lezion, a middle-class enclave outside Tel Aviv, that McGreevey was introduced to Golan Cipel, a spokesman for the local mayor and a former information officer for the Israeli consulate in New York.
Six months after that chance encounter in March 2000, Cipel left for New Jersey to work on the Woodbridge mayor's campaign for governor. McGreevey helped him find a car, a job and an apartment a tenth of a mile from the Woodbridge townhouse he shared with his wife.
The Israeli national would go on to play a controversial role in McGreevey's political life over the next two years, first as the newly elected governor's homeland security adviser, drawing widespread criticism for his inexperience, and then as a "special counsel" with ill-defined responsibilities and a $110,000 annual salary.
Republicans and Democrats alike, including some members of McGreevey's inner circle, were mystified by Cipel's role in the administration and by the governor's allegiance to him.
Cipel, 35, left state government two years ago this month, an enigma to the public and to the many reporters who sought to figure him out.
Yesterday, several ranking members of the McGreevey administration, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was Cipel the governor was referring to when he acknowledged in his dramatic afternoon news conference that he had engaged in an extramarital affair with a man.
Separately, a public relations specialist hired by McGreevey said Cipel attempted to extort money from McGreevey, threatening to file a lawsuit against him if he was not paid millions of dollars. That lawsuit was expected to be filed in Mercer County today.
Cipel could not be reached for comment yesterday, and McGreevey, during his nationally televised press conference, did not mention him by name.
But the two men are now inextricably linked in one of the more extraordinary political stories in history.
One of three children, Cipel was raised in Rishon Lezion, Israel's fourth-largest community, where he attended public schools and graduated from a high school geared toward students who excel in science and math.
After graduating high school, Cipel served five years on active duty in the Navy, rising to the rank of first lieutenant.
It was after Cipel's military service that he moved to the United States, studying communications at the New York Institute of Technology in 1995.
A short time later, he landed a job in the public information office of the Israeli consulate.
"He knew English and he was qualified, and he did PR work and he did it pretty well," former Consul General Colette Avital, a member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, told The Star-Ledger in 2002.
Avital said Cipel ultimately worked his way up to the position of chief information officer.
Cipel later returned to Israel, earning a position as spokesman for Meir Nitzan, the mayor of Rishon Lezion.
"He wrote communications for the newspapers -- propaganda, if I may say so," Nitzan said in 2002.
Last night, Nitzan was stunned when informed of Cipel's romantic link to McGreevey and of the governor's decision to resign.
"He was a positive person," Nitzan said of his former employee. "Dedicated to his work. He had several girlfriends."
Cipel worked for Nitzan for about 18 months, earning the equivalent of $36,000 a year.
It was during that period when he met McGreevey, who was on a mission to Israel with several other prominent politicians, among them Donald DiFrancesco, then president of the state Senate, and U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), then a candidate for office.
The group gathered at Rishon Lezion's performing arts center for a "wine-and-dine" reception organized by the local mayor.
"I introduced (Cipel) to Jim and mentioned that this is the Democratic candidate or something like that, and I guess they started talking," said David Mallach, assistant executive director of New Jersey's United Jewish Federation of MetroWest, told The Star-Ledger in 2002. Mallach's group co-sponsored the trip.
Six months later, McGreevey asked Cipel to move to New Jersey to work on his campaign. In an interview, McGreevey would later call Cipel "bright and tough, not a yes man."
Paid $10,000 by the Democratic State Committee, Cipel worked on McGreevey's behalf as an outreach coordinator for the state's Jewish community. At the same time, McGreevey recommended him for a public relations job to Charles Kushner, the governor's top campaign contributor.
Kushner, a top New Jersey developer who has since been charged by federal authorities with obstructing an investigation into his business dealings, hired Cipel at a $30,000 annual salary.
McGreevey helped Cipel in other ways. He instructed a subordinate at Woodbridge town hall to find Cipel a car and an apartment. In short order, Cipel was living a short block from McGreevey's townhouse.
McGreevey's election as governor would place Cipel squarely in the public eye. Shortly after his inauguration in January 2002, the governor appointed the public relations man to a $110,000-a-year job as his homeland security adviser, a position that seemed to overlap with that of Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Flicker, chief of the state's new Office of Counter- Terrorism.
Moreover, Cipel appeared to have little experience for the job. McGreevey ardently defended him, pointing to his military service and to a short stint as a staffer in the Israeli parliament.
"Golan is smart, incisive, hard- working and trustworthy, and he has brought a unique point of view to the work he does," McGreevey said at the time, seeking to silence his critics.
Cipel's position was further undermined when The Star-Ledger reported that the Secret Service and the FBI would not share sensitive information with him because he was a foreigner who did not have top security clearance.
The controversy came to a head in February 2002, when state Sen. William Gormley, (R-Atlantic) threatened to block McGreevey's appointments in the Legislature if Cipel did not appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for questioning about his qualifications.
McGreevey refused to allow the appearance, at the same time ordering Cipel to refrain from interviews with the media.
"I would love to speak, but I can't," Cipel said on Feb. 28, 2002. That short statement would mark his most expansive comments throughout his government tenure.
By early March, McGreevey relented to lawmakers' demands, transferring Cipel to a position without security responsibilities. His title remained "special counsel." His salary remained $110,000.
But neither McGreevey nor his aides would immediately explain what Cipel's new duties would be.
Amid continued media inquiries, Cipel resigned in August 2002.
McGreevey continued to support Cipel, helping him obtain a job with a politically connected public relations firm, the MWW Group, in Bergen County. He later left MWW in a dispute over how much time he was expected to put into the job.
Cipel next landed at State Street Partners, recruited by Rahway Mayor Jim Kennedy, a partner in the firm and McGreevey's best friend. The firm eventually fired him.
That McGreevey continued to come to Cipel's aid troubled some of the governor's aides. One, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Star-Ledger in October 2002: "This is a joke, right? It never seems to stop. You've got to just cut your losses and that's it. He just keeps an issue alive that shouldn't be alive."
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