TRENTON, N.J. – In a stunning declaration, Gov. James McGreevey announced his resignation Thursday and acknowledged that he had an extramarital affair with another man. “My truth is that I am a gay American,” he said with his wife by his side at a nationally televised news conference.
“Shamefully, I engaged in adult consensual affairs with another man, which violates my bonds of matrimony,” the twice-married father of two said. “It was wrong, it was foolish, it was inexcusable.”
The Democrat said his resignation would be effective Nov. 15. Senate President Richard 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 Nov. 15, a special election would be held.
McGreevey, 47, refused to answer questions at the Statehouse news conference. He said that “it makes little difference that as governor I am gay,” but added that staying in office and keeping the affair and his sexual orientation secret will leave the governor’s office “vulnerable to rumors, false allegations and threats of disclosure.”
“Given the circumstances surrounding the affair and its likely impact upon my family and my ability to govern, I have decided the right course of action is to resign,” he said.
The man involved in the affair, a former government employee, demanded “an exorbitant sum of money to make it go away,” a high-ranking administration official said.
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