| Its
voters twice rebuffed President Bush, so New Jersey seems an
unlikely place for the president to find a friend. Yet when it
comes to key appointments, the White House keeps seeking - and
finding - a helping hand in the Garden State.
Take Samuel Alito of West
Caldwell. His nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court makes him one
of six people with New Jersey ties called into service by Bush
since he took office.
The only Garden Stater who did
not make the grade was Bernard Kerik, best known for being New
York City police commissioner, later Bush's choice to succeed
Tom Ridge as Homeland Security secretary.
When Kerik stepped aside last
December after it was revealed that he had not paid taxes for a
nanny, Bush turned to Michael Chertoff, who served as Alito's
first assistant prosecutor when Alito was New Jersey's U.S.
attorney. After Alito was elevated to the federal appeals court,
Chertoff, a native of Elizabeth, became the state's U.S.
attorney.
Besides those three, Bush also
tapped former Gov. Christie Whitman, who served as head of the
Environmental Protection Agency; former Gov. Thomas Kean, who
headed the Sept. 11 Commission; and Ben Bernanke, Bush's nominee
to succeed Alan Greenspan at the helm of the Federal Reserve.
Of the six New Jerseyans Bush
has turned to, only Bernanke - a native of Georgia who grew up
in Dillon, S.C. - was born and raised elsewhere.
Bernanke was an economics
professor at Princeton University from 1985 to 2002 and chairman
of the economics department from 1996 to 2002. He and his family
lived in Montgomery Township, a leafy, affluent suburb near
Princeton where he served two terms on the school board, from
1994 to 2000.
"It is surprising. Since Bush
did not carry New Jersey in either election, you would think he
would shy away from the state," said Seton Hall University
political scientist Joseph Marbach. "A few of these folks are
pretty conservative, and that's not the reputation that New
Jersey has."
A Republican presidential
candidate hasn't carried the state since 1988. Bush lost New
Jersey to John Kerry 53percent to 46 percent in 2004, and he
lost to Al Gore by 16 points in 2000.
Whitman and Kean were logical
choices, Marbach said, because Whitman appealed to environmental
groups and Kean "has the reputation as an honest broker," a
quality that was vital to the process of gathering the facts
behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
However, Whitman's tenure at
EPA, from 2001 to 2003, was marked by the tension of being a
moderate Republican in a conservative administration.
Chertoff, Bernanke and Alito
all bring a great deal of technical expertise to their jobs,
Marbach said.
"It's more of a coincidence
rather than something being in the water in New Jersey," he
said.
Paul Light, a New York
University professor of public service, said about 60 percent of
Bush's appointees or nominations hail from inside the Washington
beltway, and 10 percent are Texans, like him.
Of the remaining 30 percent,
New Jersey has a rather large share of that pie, along with such
states as California and Ohio, Light said.
"There may be some pattern here
that has to do with the fact that Bush has spent a lot of time
in New Jersey and New York dealing with Sept. 11," Light said.
"And Bush is the kind of president who tends to appoint people
that he knows and likes."
Bush "looks to New Jersey
because we have better people," joked Whitman, who now runs a
consulting firm with offices in Washington and Gladstone.
"Seriously, he is finding the
people he pulls from New Jersey are a diverse group who will
provide him with advice he can rely upon," Whitman said.
Acting Governor Codey said he
was not surprised that Bush has turned to the state so many
times.
"Clearly Bush has recognized
that New Jersey public officials are battle tested," said Codey.
Jeff Kauflin, a member of
"Lovers of the Garden State," whose motto is "Semper Jerseus
Semper Fi" - "Always Jersey Always Faithful" - said New Jersey
holds an advantage because it is a heavily populated state with
a central location in the metropolitan East Coast.
"New Jersey is a place that
demands strong leadership in order to operate as efficiently as
it has for so many years; therefore, it is logical that
President Bush places confidence in New Jersey leaders," Kauflin
said. |
