AUGUST 28 . 2004 • Q-NOTES
Politics
N.J. Governor scandal causes a whirlwind of controversy
from page 1
Cipel is still considering filing a lawsuit,
according to Lowy. Kathy Ellis, a spokes
woman for McGreevey, called Lowy’s ver
sion of the minutes leading up to the
announcement “absolutely incorrect.”
Who is Golan Cipel?
Did Cipel have an affair with
McGreevey, or was he the victim of
unwanted sexual advances?
NJ. Governor James McGreevey and wife
Dina Matos McGreevey at the Aug. 10
press conference.
According to numerous wire reports,
Cipel met McGreevey on one of the gover
nor’s trips to israel. McGreevey would later
appoint Cipel as New Jersey’s $ll0,000-a-
year homeland security adviser in 2002,
without a background check or official
announcement. The appointment drew
criticism, and Cipel was reassigned a few
months later and soon after left the posi--
tion for a job in New York.
Cipel has denied that he is gay.
“Never in my life have i had relations
with a man, certainly not with this man
who has come forward in the United
States,” Cipel said in a statement faxed to
The Associated Press. .
“I am a lone person fighting against a
monstrous well-oiled machine of lies and
manipulations operating, in a methodical
manner against me,” Cipel said.
“1 believe that in a few days new lies will
emerge, even worse than before, lies and
monstrous manipulations by the governor
— paving the way for his lawyers ... all to
threaten me and shut me up.”
New tales did emerge — but they
weren’t from the governor.
On Aug. 18 the N.Y. Post printed an arti
cle with claims from a 47-year-old New
Jersey doctor who said that he was an ex
lover of Cipel.
“I was with Golan when he wasn’t with
Jim,” said Dr. Michael David Miller, who
described his relationship with Cif)el as sexual.
Miller’s claims directly refuted the earlier
statements from Cipel insisting that he is straight.
In the Post interview Miller said he had
no doubt that Cipel is gay.
“He’s gay. So what?” said Miller.
Miller added that Cipel had been
involved in at least three other relation
ships with men “that I know of.”
An emergency-room doctor. Miller said
he met Cipel at a fundraiser for McGreevey
in 2001. “His interest in monetary affairs
was strange,” said Miller.
“Out on a date, he would ask me how
much money 1 have, how many properties
I own. We were out for a pleasant evening
and to have sex. It took away from the
moment. Conversations with him always
ended up with money.”
He also said he thought Cipel was
threatening to sue McGreevey because the
governor had jilted him.
“Do you know what a jilted lover is?" he
asked. “Jim jilted him."
But Miller didn’t stop there with his
negative characterizations of Cipel.
“Golan did something so hateful in Jewish
society and so hateful in the gay community
that I was shocked,” Miller said. “1 wouldn’t
be surprised if the Republitan Party paid him
a tidy sum of money to do this. Because what
Golan likes is money.”
Cipel is now in Israel, and says he plans
to return, but Miller is skeptical of that claim.
He says Cipel fled the country “because
he was scared when he learned there was
a federal investigation into extortion.”
On Aug. 18 Cipel once again fired back.
“I never had any relationship with any
man, so I don’t know what they want from
me,” he told a close friend who spoke with
the press. Cipel called Miller’s tale “ridicu
lous and laughable,” and said it was now
open season on him — “anyone can get up
now and claim he had an affair.”
The story continues to develop as alle
gations against McGreevey indicate possi
ble abuse of his position when he appoint
ed Cipel to the Homeland Security posi
tion, despite the fact former FBI Director
Louis Freeh was actively pursuing the job.
Freeh had even offered to serve
McGreevey without a salary, the Newark
Star-Ledger reported.
A gay victory or major disappointment?
Although activists in the LGBT commu
nity were excited that McGreevey’s admis
sion meant that the U.S. now had it’s first
gay governor, their enthusiasm was tern-
BARBARA HOLLINGSWORTH
ATTORNEY & MEDIATOR
Specializing in Negotiation and Mediation of Relationship Issues
• Domestic Partnership
Agreements
• Collaborative Negotiation &
Mediation of Disputes
• Wills & Powers of Attorney
704/455>8241
6725 Robinson Church Road • Harrisburg, NC 28075
pered by his upcoming resignation.
“I’m not shocked about the fact that he
has come out as a gay man; that was always
my suspicion that he was a closeted case,”
said Anahi Galante, founder of a New Jersey
gay advocacy organization. United in Grace
LGBT. She also noted that McGreevey’s
opposition to gay marriage but favor of
domestic partnerships seemed to shed light
on his secret.
“For me, it would have been a true victory if
he would have come out and not resigned.”
Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden
State Equality, a statewide gay advocacy
organization, said he was “in tears”
watching McGreevey*s televised speech,
“This speech hit me far more as a gay
person than it docs as a political activist,”
Goldstein said. “There are millions of les
bians and gay citizens of America who
know how very hard it is to come out as an
openly lesbian or gay person, but to have
to do so in such a public fashion like this, I
cannot even imagine what the governor
has gone through.”
Although McGreevey insists he’s not
going anywhere until Nov. 15, Republicans
and even a handful of Democrats are call
ing for him to resign immediately.
Joe Kyrillos, chairman of the New Jersey
Republican State Committee, called on
McGreevey to “do the right thing” and step
down right away.
Providing McGreevey resigns on Nov. 15,
N.J. Senate President Richard J. Codey, a
Democrat, will become acting governor and
serve out the remainder of McGreevey’s
term, which ends in early 2006. If McGreevey
were to leave office before Sept. 3, a special
election would be held.
Despite admonishments from N.J.
Republicans, the state is largely
Democratic and the Republican voter base
is extremely .splintered. There are no
Republicans who have announced their
desire to vie for the position — though
some Democrats have voiced their support
for Sen. Jon Corzine. Corzine says he is
"leaving the door open” to running in a
special election to finish McGrcevey’s term
only if McGreevey makes the decision to
leave sooner.
see NJ. GOVERNOR on 21
and be
:ounte€i!
Be heard at www.gicensus.org
Syracuse University S OpusComm Group, lnc.~GLCensus Partnership