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Political Page-Turner: Codey Brings Book Signing to Rose City
Former N.J. governor helps raise funds to benefit T.J. Martell Foundation.
He is known to some as a survivor of New Jersey politics.
"Yes, some people say that about me," said former New Jersey Gov. Richard Codey at a booking signing for his political autobiography, "Me, Governor?: My Life in the Rough-and-Tumble World of New Jersey Politics," at on Sunday evening.
One hundred percent of the proceeds from Sunday's signing will go to the T.J. Martell Foundation, which funds medical research focused on finding cures for leukemia, cancer and AIDS.
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It was Codey who assumed the governor's office in 2004, succeeding Jim McGreevey, who resigned following an affair with a gay staffer. A down-to-earth personality, Codey spent 14 months in office until the eventual election of Jon Corzine. Along the way he bristled at the back-biting nature of politics at the top even as he looked to restore respectability in a state whose reputation for underhanded dealings looms large.
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Just after he left the governor's office, Codey was approached by friends and colleagues. "People were saying that considering the circumstances, and how well I did, that I should write a book."
The idea of a memoir from his time in office germinated until 2008, when he began an agent search. Agents, however, questioned whether the book would sell outside the state. But the eventual publisher, Rutgers Prep, sent the tome out to professional manuscript reviewers and, according to Codey, "they all came back with two thumbs up."
Even with such positive reviews, Rutgers got the jitters and only wanted to print a limited run of 5,000 copies. Codey countered with 7,500 and ten days after release, sold all 7,500 copies. The book is now in its second printing and a third is planned.
Codey is in the middle of a 23-date book signing tour that will take him across the state.
"The people who I have spoken to have said that they loved it, that it was not a boring political book," Codey said. "Grown men have told me that they cried because there are two chapters that are emotional and everybody tells me at times that they laughed out loud. My close friends say that its reads exactly the way I speak."
Codey said that for two years he kept two journals with notes, recording memorable moments from his time in office and from he personal life as a husband and a father to two sons. If re-elected this fall to the newly-reconfigured 27th District, Codey said he will be tied for the longest stretch, 40 years, for an elected legislator in New Jersey.
The memoir is chock-full of anecdotes about is political life. As readers might expect, his favorites relate to his transition to governorship.
"One thing I say in the book is how [former New Jersey Gov.] Christine Whitman went on the Chris Matthews show the day after McGreevey was outed and said, 'He's not gay, this is a cover-up for scandals in his administration.' So Chris Matthews appropriately said, 'Only in New Jersey can this be a cover-up.' So I said, 'Wrong Chris, only in New Jersey can a governor resign because of homosexual fear and be succeeded in office by a guy who's name is Dick."
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