New Jersey
Cryan's Staggering
Start
 |
|
David Hunsinger for The New York Times
Assemblyman Joseph Cryan was quickly thrown into the
limelight just as he was to take the helm of the state party |
By JOSH BENSON,
NYTimes on the Web, March 19, 2006
UNION. NJ -- IN a matter of
weeks, Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, the new chairman of the state Democratic Party,
found himself entangled in two controversies — one stranger than the next —
propelling him from the shadows to the spotlight.
It was not the kind of introduction a politician longs for.
Indeed, when he was asked last week how long he hoped to serve in his new post,
Mr. Cryan burst out laughing. "Well, the way things are going ..." he
said, hardly needing to finish the thought. "What time is it?"
With a sterling political pedigree and an aptitude for policy and partisanship,
Mr. Cryan has so far had a short career in state politics typified by easy
success: powerful positions on the Appropriations and Human Services
Committees, a leading role in the Democratic caucus and a prominent role on the
state party committee, all since arriving at the General Assembly four years
ago.
He is, as David Rebovich, a political science professor at Rider University, put
it, "a serious person who clearly wants to make his mark in politics."
But just as Mr. Cryan was to ascend to the chairmanship of the state party — his
crowning achievement to this point and the same position once held by his father
— he became caught up in these two odd dust-ups.
The first came when a developer with a history of making spectacular accusations
claimed in January that the assemblyman — who is also an under sheriff in Union
County — once accepted an unreported cash contribution of $2,000. The
charge was deemed to be not credible after a two-week investigation by the state
attorney general's office, but Mr. Cryan was left to endure an uncomfortable
limbo as his selection was put in jeopardy.
Then, within days of finally being named state chairman last month, Mr. Cryan
was caught up in another bizarre turn of events, this one involving a lobbyist
and former Corzine campaign worker who was arrested for trying to break into Mr.
Cryan's car while he was at work in the State House. But what might have
been an unusual yet insignificant story turned into a news media frenzy when it
was learned that the woman's $5,000 bail had been posted by Gov. Jon S. Corzine
himself.
"It's been distracting," Mr. Cryan said in an interview in his legislative
office on Union's main commercial strip. "I think a chairman's role is to
develop the policies, procedures and infrastructure to allow us to continue to
grow, and I've lost time because of the distractions."
He added that he thought the governor's attempts to convey a message preparing
New Jersey for tough budgetary decisions had been diluted, saying that "to lose
any time sharing that and making sure that message is out is always a step
backwards."
'We're Moving On'
Now, hoping that the worst of the controversy is behind him, Mr. Cryan says that
he is looking forward to fulfilling the tasks he was brought in to achieve:
helping Mr. Corzine sell what is sure to be a painful budget, aiding Senator
Robert Menendez through a potentially difficult election campaign and raising
money for the legislative elections next year.
"We're moving on with our business," he said.
Friends of Mr. Cryan say that his background has helped him weather this
roughest patch. "It hasn't been easy, but he comes from a political
family, and they would talk about politics all the time," said State Senator
Raymond J. Lesniak, who shares a district office with Mr. Cryan. "It was
their entertainment in that family, and that was as good a preparation for the
double barrels that hit him as anything."
Despite the unwelcome attention for Mr. Cryan, his ascension to the state
chairmanship represents a career path that in some ways seems preordained.
To say that Mr. Cryan grew up around politics is an understatement. He was
immersed in it for as long as he can remember, having grown up among a group of
influential Irish-American political families from Essex County that produced
John Cryan, Ray Durkin, Thomas Giblin and Philip Keegan — who together had a
lock on the state party chairmanship for more than 12 years.
On the Block-Party Circuit
Mr. Cryan, who these days has thinning hair and a thickening midsection, spent
much of his youth tagging along with his father — who was a three-term sheriff
in Essex County — as they met and greeted voters at block parties and picnics,
in restaurants and in bars.
"In those days," he said, "it would be people sitting at the bar rubbing my head
and giving me a dollar, saying 'Don't tell your father.' "
Then there are the connections to the old country, which have remained
uncommonly strong for Mr. Cryan. When the elder Mr. Cryan died last year,
he was the subject of tributes not only in the New Jersey newspapers, but also
in the Roscommon Herald. But by then his son had already established
himself as a guardian of those ties, forming the Irish American Society of
Union, becoming an active member of the Union St. Patrick's Day Parade committee
and even serving one year as grand marshal of the Woodbridge parade.
And, of course, father and son had one other professional trait in common; after
years working at an aviation technology company, Mr. Cryan joined his father in
the family's well-known restaurant business, Cryan's, which is still operating
in South Orange.
The similarities between father and son have only been a help to him in his
career, Mr. Cryan said.
"Given my dad's reputation for being what he was, people expect the same out of
you, and that's fine with me," he said. "When the standards are high,
that's only a good thing."
Not that Mr. Cryan's latest career move was as clear-cut as everything else has
seemed to be. Some of his closest associates say that the assemblyman was
dispirited enough by the scrutiny that followed the developer's accusation for
him to have considered walking away from the post he had coveted since entering
politics.
"He asked me at one point if he should release Governor Corzine from his
obligations to support him," Mr. Lesniak recalled. "He was concerned there
might be a spillover effect."
But, as Mr. Cryan said, he ultimately decided that quitting would have been more
painful than sticking it out, and would have seemed to some like an admission of
wrongdoing.
Pride in Political Toughness
"The first thing I thought was from the perspective of what's best for the state
party and for the governor — he was just coming in, and I wasn't looking to take
any wind out of his sails," he said. "But let's face it, if I had said no
thanks, to a lot of people that would have said I was guilty."
And so the official who prides himself on his political toughness born both of
family heritage and ethnicity — he has a picture on the wall taken with Sinn
Fein's Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness — did what he believed was the only
acceptable thing. He stayed.
Although the process was painful, that choice was eventually vindicated when the
accusation was found to be baseless and he was confirmed as chairman.
"By Jon setting the standard so high and clearing it so quickly, you don't have
to look back," Mr. Cryan said.
The second incident was somewhat more complicated, not only because it involved
the governor — who subsequently issued an apology for his lapse in judgment when
he provided the bail money — but also because it was a much more personal
affair.
Like Mr. Cryan, the woman who broke into his car, Karen Golding, also comes from
a prominent Irish-American family from Essex County. What's more, Ms.
Golding knew the Cryan family well: she was honored in 2004 by the Cryan
Association, a civic group run by the family, and she was a regular visitor to
the bedside of Mr. Cryan's father before he died of lung cancer in February
2005. She is awaiting a court hearing in Union County, where she was taken
after her arrest.
The story of exactly what led to and followed that incident — which has not yet
been resolved in court — may be somewhat slower to fade, with some Republicans
raising questions about the way the affair was handled.
"Because he's an elected official, there's a higher standard for him," said Tom
Wilson, the state Republican Party chairman, who said that he liked Mr. Cryan
personally. "There are some legitimate questions about this incident.
Did Joe Cryan receive preferential treatment here?"
But Mr. Rebovich, the political science professor, said that the incident was
unlikely to hinder Mr. Cryan over the long term in his capacity as state
chairman.
"I think he'll be able to do his job, and that this isn't going to be a problem
for him," Mr. Rebovich said. "It's an embarrassment, and it sidetracked
him — the timing couldn't have been worse. But the attention now is going
to shift to the state budget crisis. And how Cryan can lead Democrats in
New Jersey through all of that will be the real test."
Finally, Tackling the Job
For his part, Mr. Cryan would only say of the incident that he hopes "it turns
out well for everyone."
About his task as the new state chairman in trying economic times, Mr. Cryan
said that he intended to follow an aggressive plan of attack. "I think I
can finally get down to doing my job, which is to grow this party," he said.
Still, given the success the state Democrats have had in recent years — they now
control the State Senate and Assembly, the governorship and both United States
Senate seats — Mr. Cryan said he is just "playing to tie" the success of his
predecessor, Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman.
For all he has been through in recent weeks, Mr. Cryan insisted these two
incidents did not make for his toughest experience — not even close.
"This is nothing compared to organizing the St. Patrick's Day Parade," he said.
"That's the hardest thing I've ever done. Easily."
|
