Announcer: Major funding for "Chat Box with David Cruz" is provided by the members of the New Jersey education Association, making public schools great for every child.

Promotional support is provided by Insider NJ, a political intelligence network dedicated to New Jersey's political news.

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♪ David: Welcome to "Chat Box."

I'm David Cruz.

We will try to cleanse the palate after a sometimes distasteful election season.

We will speak with John Schreiber of NJPAC about the jazzfest.

It is New Jersey so when one campaign ends, another begins.

We will talk to the former governor who wants to return to municipal government.

McGreevy served from 2002 to 2004, until his resignation which we will talk about in a moment.

Here is his campaign launch video.

>> I have decided the right course of action is to resign.

>> I am imperfect and will always be imperfect.

>> it is important to take accountability.

David: Jim McGreevey joins us now.

So you are imperfect, welcome to the club.

Jim: I always have been.

David: You opened with the scandal in this video.

Did you do that because your opponents would do that anyway?

Jim: I think it is important to do.

As I said today, I know it may seem paradoxical, but I would not have changed anything.

I was a young man, mayor, Senate, ran for governor.

And have this precipitous fall and what I learned from that and as my father would say, you have a lot to be humble about.

What I learned from that is a greater sense of compassion, understanding, how people struggle.

I grew up in a working-class household.

But until I took a caseload with reentry and for the past decade I have worked with people coming home from addiction treatments or prisons, jails, combat veterans suffering from mental illness, you begin to understand the dimensions of people's pain and suffering.

I would not change anything.

David: The scandal, and I was covering that, it was more than I am a gay American, you tried to make your lover the head of Homeland Security.

Jim: That is not true.

David: The feds were investigating.

Jim: two separate things.

One, it was not homeland, that was in the Attorney General's office.

David: A paid job within the administration.

Jim: Only in New Jersey can you have a gay lover on the payroll and that not be enough.

It was inappropriate,something k ownership of.

He advised on a whole series of issues including counterterrorism, including economic development, the business community.

I want to own it, but apologize for it.

David: You want to own it, but for what it was?

Jim: Yes.

David: Fair enough.

Also there were federal examinations.

Jim: Chris Christie is one of the toughest prosecutors of white-collar crime in the history of the state.

I think he is tough, but fair and clearly whoever is governor can be a focus of investigations, whether state or federal and I think Governor Christie said, that Jim McGreevey has never taken a dime in his life.

When you look at my record in Woodbridge's 10 years, my years of service as governor, whether it was E-ZPass or the Highlands protection, drinking water or MVC, was about making things work.

I also think that is what Jersey City needs.

David: What is the difference between not guy, the governor, chief executive and the guy who will run now for mayor as a chief executive?

How are those two CEO's different?

Jim: Great question.

I described today as, David Brooks in the New York Times talks about resume virtues and eulogy virtues.

I was the young man in a hurry with resume virtues.

I think the great blessing of my resignation and going to seminary and working in county jail with the women was understanding my flaws, my brokenness, and creating a place where I can meet people, meet the women and common ground.

There is a level of compassion, understanding.

What I want is a city that is affordable, affordability in property taxes, affordable housing, clean and safe streets.

The classic in Jersey City so often, when children reach a certain age and have means or affluence, can move to the suburbs for education.

Folks on Ocean Avenue or MLK cannot simply move.

I want to be committed to making sure we have quality schools.

I want to make sure people are committed to recreational opportunities.

When you ask that question, when I see the people I work with, we work with over 21,000 people from prison, jail, addiction, veterans, that are broken, I think if we can help shape those low -- shape those lives before they enter the criminal justice system.

David: With the governor have had the same perspective 20 years ago?

Jim: No way.

David: So this is a different administrator as well as a different person.

Jim: Yes, but the administrator comes out of the person.

Bluntly, I still take a caseload.

I was on the phone with Grayson psychiatric talking to people, taking folks to addiction treatment or working with them in terms of HVAC.

The old Jim McGreevey would be worried about the next office.

I love the life I have, I love my daughters, my home, my books, the quality of life I have, I love reentry.

This will be a passion of love.

This is like walking down the hill.

The next stop, the Catholic seminary where my grandmother is buried.

David: I love how you name drop the local joints, which is good.

Jim: That is where my grandmother is buried.

David: The story you tell in the intro video is very personal.

Here are a couple things I hear from residents when I ask them about you.

Jim: Somebody just said, Jim McGreevey, how can he run, he never held elected office?

He is just starting as Mayor.

This was from a young kid.

It is fascinating there is a whole generation that has no idea who or what McGreevey is.

David: Some people ask, who does he think he is?

Where has he been?

Jim: Working on reentry.

David: I think they mean in the city.

Jim: We were at 398 Martin Luther King in the heart of the city.

I was not in elected office, but was there every day helping people grapple with mental health or addiction treatments or secure Medicaid or snap, food stamps, working with them to help find housing which is critically important and difficult.

And linking them to job-training.

David: That is where you have been.

Jim: For the past decade.

Literally every day of my life.

David: You mentioned someone said, who is this guy?

He has never held elected office.

Do you feel that is a fair question?

Jim: Sure.

David: What do you say to that?

Jim: To the young folks?

A state trooper couple months ago was talking, going back and forth, you worked in Trenton?

Yeah.

What did you do?

I was governor.

He said, where was I?

David: He was 10 years old.

Jim: Less than that.

That is a blessing.

It is an opportunity to present yourself and your vision to the city to the voters.

David: You had a former Senate president Steve Sweeney, Brian Stack, Patterson, another -- and other political luminaries.

Are you the establishment candidate and is that a good look for someone in New Jersey city?

Jim: I don't think so.

David: You already have nine mayors supporting you.

Jim: Unless you are registered for voting in Jersey City, you cannot vote in Jersey City.

I would want to be the candidate people have trust will work hard on working-class family issues, will work diligently to clean up the streets, safe and clean streets, striping, cleanliness, street paving, try to do something about traffic, parking, and affordability.

When I am at street fairs or church festivals people come up and say, my property taxes went up by xyz.

Or senior citizens on a fixed income.

I had a veteran at church a couple Sundays ago on Ocean Avenue, Jersey City.

The gentleman pointed to new condominiums going up and said, I cannot afford these, my children cannot afford these.

I am going to move to South Carolina.

This is a person who has been four generations of Jersey City.

If the city becomes unaffordable for all but the upper wealthy brackets, it is not a city anymore.

The restaurant was probably too small, but that is why I had the announcement, because I wanted to be on MLK.

I wanted a connection to what I had done the last decade of my life.

-- came out, wanted a new way of life, was a cook, we helped him open up a restaurant, he is a taxpayer, contributing to his church, community and that is what this is about.

I did not come back to Jersey City to build buildings.

I came hopefully to build lives and communities.

David: The guy you looking to succeed once accused you of mishandling funds of the Jersey City handling -- training program with no proof, but engineered your dismissal.

How are you getting along and do you want him to support you?

Jim: Let me back up.

He also gave me the opportunity to come to Jersey and I think we were very successful in terms of what we did for reentry services and providing opportunities for folks.

I know certain accusations were made.

I published all audits rigorously and publicly in total transparency.

The individual who followed me -- David: Is the one who ended up getting indicted.

Jim: I have strengths and weaknesses.

It is not about money.

That has never been my motivation.

In terms of Mayor Philip, I think what he has done in certain areas has been transformational in terms of downtown.

I said that today in my speeches.

There are also communities that are struggling.

It is my experience both outside and inside government that hopefully will make me sensitive to those needs and responsive to those management concerns about street safety and education.

Education, education, education.

If we are worried about the fate of young people at 15, 16, 17.

It is almost over.

We have to focus on childhood literacy so much sooner.

David: You have billowed day, the county commissioner you have known -- you have bill o'day, the county commissioner, you have known him a long time.

What do you think of that?

Jim: Whoever runs, God bless them.

That is how democracy should work.

David: Shouting out your potential opponents.

Do you have running mates yet?

Jim: no, it is far too early.

David: He is the first one in the pool, Jersey City mayoral candidate, former governor Jim McGreevey.

Good to see you.

Jim: Thank you.

David: I promised the palate cleanser, the jazzfest has begun.

One of my favorite times of year and a chance to talk to the CEO of NJPAC.

John: Lovely to see you.

David: We wonder about the post-pandemic and I guess it was a slow return, but how is it going now?

John: It is like gangbusters, people are coming back to pre-pandemic levels which is great for our business, our community.

People want to gather.

They want to be together in a room having a fun and engaging experience across all categories.

Every type of audience member one can imagine is coming back.

It is glorious.

David: It is one thing to listen to a live performance on radio or CD player.

It is another to share that kind of thing.

John: I am in favor of music on television.

I watch it occasionally.

We produce it sometimes.

But nothing beats real time enjoying someone you love.

That is what this is all about and I think people are starving for it and are happy to return.

David: For me, there is nothing like jazz live because the essence of jazz is spontaneous composition and you can only do that in front of an audience.

James Moody jazz fest is back this year.

I will be seeing it this week.

You have within the world of jazz a pretty wide palette.

John: My mentor, my old boss, George Wein, who started the Newport Jazz Festival in 1954.

He said not everybody likes jazz, but everybody likes a jazz festival.

There are so many entry points, genres of music and once you are in and have a good time and hear a new sound you might not have heard before you open your ears to all sorts of stuff.

That is the fun part of a multi-genre jazz festival.

David: Jazz is subversive that way.

If you do not tell someone they are listening to jazz they are like, that is just?

It is really -- that is jazz?

It is really personal.

I am looking at the lineups.

When I have not seen in a long time.

Louis Armstrong's black and blues.

Is that the documentary?

John: It is a wonderful film.

I think we are playing it at the Newark Museum.

One of my heroes is Louis Armstrong.

Not only because he was an inventor of the music going back to the 1920's, but he led such an extraordinary life and that is what this film tells us.

He was a writer, a social activist, a colagist, -- collagist, an artist, and a remarkable force for good.

David: He never got credit for that because he was such a popular figure in America.

John: He was.

In the 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, one of the most famous people in America.

As jazz evolved beyond his style of swing, there were artists who did not honor what Louis had created.

For all the times in the 1950's when folks like Miles Davis and dizzy would dismiss Louis.

As they grew as musicians they understood better what he was.

David: There is no better singing or horn playing without Louis Armstrong.

John: I will tell you a quick story.

In the 1930's when his unique singing style, trumpet players decided they would do well to sing and wanted to sound like Louis.

There was a story that trumpet players would take a shower, stick their head out the window in February to catch a cold so they could sound like Louis.

[LAUGHTER] David: That is awesome.

There is also a strong Jersey connection to this festival.

Talk about that a bit.

John: I would tell you Bill was here, he is a Jersey guy.

David: Steve is playing at Nico's next-door?

John: We do a jazz series and named it after Newark's first lady of jazz, a widow of a jazz master from the NEA.

It is a beautiful affair.

She loves bacon, so there is a lot of bacon.

David: The woman has lived eight decades eating bacon all the time.

Also you will have something at Bethany Baptist Church, a series called jazz vespers.

John: And Cyrus Chestnut will be there.

If you love jazz pai -- piano, you have got to be there.

It is special, Cyrus is a monster.

David: How has this festival and programming in general at NJPAC evolved over the past decade?

When you have the pandemic, you basically had to shut down.

How are audiences different over the past 10 years?

John: We did not shut down during the pandemic.

We had to shut down presenting live, but had 500 virtual events over the course of the pandemic.

Social justice events come music events, education programs.

We discovered during the pandemic the work we were producing was not only meaningful to our community, but we exported it around the country.

As awful as the pandemic was, it gave us an opportunity to do virtual and distance learning programs we would never have done before.

In terms of the evolution of the programming, it has been intentional.

We serve predictably a dozen different ethnicities, nationalities.

Predictably seven times a year.

Almost the most diverse state in the country.

We want everyone of our community to feel they have a home and a place where they can come and hear someone they love several times a year.

That is how we try to build our audiences and it is one of the reasons our audience has grown.

We had our biggest year ever last year with over 700,000 people.

David: How did the North Shore Festival do this summer?

John: It did good, did well.

We had 220 thousand people over the three cities.

We produced about 250 events, big and small.

Dozens of local artists in WNET and Atlantic City got grants and showcases for their work and we are planning the next one which will occur in June in those three cities.

It is a fun thing to work on because it is a bottoms up, top-down sort of thing.

You have huge artists and local heroes that will play in clubs and community centers and churches and I love that.

David: Good stuff.

John Schreiber of NJPAC.

Folks can learn more about the TD James Moody Jazz fest by going to njpac.org.

That is "Chat Box" this week.

You can follow me on X.

Get loads of content when you scan the QR code on your screen.

I am David Cruz.

From all of us, thank you for watching.

See you next week.

>> Major funding for "Chat Box with David Cruz" is provided by the members of the New Jersey education Association, making public schools great for every child.

Promotional support is provided by Insider NJ, a political intelligence network dedicated to New Jersey's political news.

Insider NJ is committed to giving serious political players an interactive forum for ideas, discussion, and insight.

Online at insiderNJ.com.