James E. McGreevey was putting his life back together. He
had begun to resurface on the political scene, dining with
clients and public officials around North Jersey in his new
life as an attorney with Weiner Lesniak, the powerful law
firm of his political mentor, state Sen. Raymond Lesniak.
Then, on Wednesday night, amid a flap over ethics, Lesniak
called a meeting in the living room of his Elizabeth home
and waited for the former governor, his old friend, to arrive.
McGreevey had no inkling the man who had stood by him throughout
his political career was about to cut him loose.
"We hit him over the head with it," Lesniak said,
describing the meeting in which he and his partner, Paul Weiner,
said McGreevey had to go.
Lesniak recalls McGreevey asking: 'We'll work on this over
the next few days. How soon do we have to do it?"
"And I said, 'Immediately.'"
Lesniak said he was in tears after delivering the news to
his friend. He said McGreevey was devastated.
"This guy just wants to do good. And as hard as he tried
to do good things, it just backfires on him," Lesniak
said yesterday.
Last year McGreevey was one of the most powerful governors
in the nation.
Today he is out of a job, only 16 days before his government-funded
transition office in Woodbridge is shut down. His friends
are worried about his future. They say he's at his lowest
point since he resigned in a gay sex scandal last year.
"He has a life to live and bills to pay," said Lesniak,
a Democratic power broker from Union County who has been in
McGreevey's corner for 15 years.
Sports czar George Zoffinger, another friend of McGreevey's
who spoke to him yesterday, said: "It's very sad. I feel
very bad for him personally. I tried to encourage him to keep
his chin up and that things will work out. I don't know what
else to say."
McGreevey's latest problems started a few weeks ago, when
he began working for the Mills Corp., co-developer of the
$1.3 billion Xanadu project at the Meadowlands. McGreevey's
administration had picked the company over five others for
the project in 2003, and he signed the lease to cement the
deal.
The state required the company to establish a job-training
program, to prepare area residents for the jobs Xanadu is
expected to create. Weiner Lesniak, which previously had been
retained by the Mills Corp. for the task, assigned McGreevey
to spearhead the program, believing it matched his policy
interests.
But when Mills publicly acknowledged McGreevey's involvement
in Xanadu, critics said the ethics questions that had plagued
him while he was governor were back.
Environmentalists who are suing to stop the project accused
him of a conflict of interest, saying he was making money
from a company that won a lucrative deal from him while he
was governor.
Initially, McGreevey shrugged off the controversy, according
to two associates who requested anonymity. They said he attended
a meeting with Mills Corp. executives Wednesday morning at
the Teaneck office of the company's general counsel, DeCotiis,
Fitzpatrick, Cole & Wisler, to talk about future plans.
But by afternoon, acting Gov. Richard Codey told Lesniak he
would tighten ethics rules to restrict what former governors
can do once they leave office.
Lesniak told McGreevey, who volunteered to comply with Codey's
pending action by breaking off his relationship with the Mills
Corp.
But Lesniak and Weiner soon realized McGreevey's compliance
with Codey's order would make it impossible for him to stay
at the firm. They called a meeting at Lesniak's house.
Weiner arrived first, armed with a list of the firm's major
clients. While Lesniak (D-Union) is often the public face
of the politically connected firm, Weiner has a reputation
as a shrewd lawyer who quietly handles its day-to-day operations.
Lesniak said Weiner was the first to realize McGreevey had
to go.
Lesniak said Weiner was concerned that, although most of their
clients had been with the firm long before McGreevey joined
it, critics of the Xanadu arrangement also might call those
contracts payback to the former governor.
"Every single one of them in one way, shape or form is
involved with what the state does," Lesniak said. "Every
single thing that we did, somehow, some way, would be construed
as related to his actions as governor -- not accurately, not
fairly, but it would be impossible for us to continue that
way."
Lesniak said that when McGreevey arrived, he offered the former
governor a cup of tea. They settled in the living room, and
talk turned to McGreevey's resignation from the firm.
"There was debate over it. It was quite a drastic action
for him to give up what he's been doing for the last six months
and also give up an income that he needs, that he cannot live
without," Lesniak said. "He wasn't okay with it
at first."
Lesniak said he and Weiner told McGreevey, "You might
as well just do it and get on with your life."
Lesniak added: "He loved what he was doing, and that
is what hurts him the most right now. ... He felt he was developing
a real public service, and he enjoys the camaraderie at the
law firm. He's going to miss that."
While Weiner Lesniak was not one of the big state contractors
during McGreevey's tenure as governor, it had earned millions
of dollars in legal work from Woodbridge Township when McGreevey
was mayor there in the 1990s.
In the statement he issued Wednesday night as he announced
he had left the firm, McGreevey publicly thanked Lesniak for
his friendship and support during "a very difficult period
in my life."
McGreevey did not return calls for comment yesterday. Neither
did Weiner.
Lesniak said that after the meeting, he and Weiner invited
McGreevey to drown their sorrows in wine at Benito's Restaurant
in Union Township, one of the favorite spots of the state's
political crowd. He said McGreevey passed on the invitation
and went home to see his daughter.
The senator said that on his drive to the restaurant, he broke
down in tears.
"This was harder for me than his resignation, because
I believe he had made a very successful transition. He has
grown so much," Lesniak said.
Lesniak said McGreevey was heartened yesterday morning by
two phone calls he received from international corporations
interested in hiring him to handle public policy and corporate
citizenship initiatives.
"This happened for a reason. I told him he is destined
to do bigger and better things than being a lawyer at Weiner
Lesniak," Lesniak said. "But it's going to be impossible
for him to be New Jersey-centered, and he's accepted that."
