[bright music] - [Announcer] Funding for "Governors' Perspectives "with Kent Manahan" is made possible by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, committed to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need.

Additional funding provided by Seton Hall University, Seton Hall School of Law, and by Connell Foley, LLP.

[bright music continues] [bright music continues] - [Kent] Former Governor Dick Codey, New Jersey's 53rd governor, started his political career in the Democratic Party in 1973 at the age of 26.

That's when he was elected to the State Assembly, representing the people in Essex County's 27th District.

Codey didn't leave the assembly until 1982 when he was elected to the state senate.

From there, 22 years later, he became governor, a post he never ran for or was elected to.

At the time, Codey was president of the senate, New Jersey didn't have a lieutenant governor.

And when then governor, Jim McGreevey, unexpectedly resigned due to a scandal in his administration, Senator Codey was in line to take over.

- He is very much a kind of a Jersey, every man, and I think that was the appeal that he had during his 14 months as governor.

- [Kent] For the next nearly year and a half as governor, he championed many issues, including New Jersey's Smoke-Free Air Act, stricter gun control, healthy food for kids in school, and play-to-pay laws.

Mental health reform was always a top priority for him and his wife, Mary Jo, dating back to Codey's days in the legislature.

[bright music] - We started the Codey Fund for Mental Health to get people to stand up, speak out, and get help.

- He went undercover in the state psychiatric hospitals and really tried to see what kind of treatment people were getting when nobody was looking.

- You could argue that Dick Codey, for a 14-month stretch, was the most powerful governor we ever had, because he could go down the hallway in the Senate, traffic the legislation and appointments, and then, go down to the executive wing of the State House and make those appointments and sign that legislation.

- [Kent] Last August, Codey announced that after 50 years of public service, he would not run for reelection.

He said it was time for a younger generation.

Five decades of public service makes him the longest serving legislator in state history.

In a statement, Governor Murphy called Dick Codey, "the rarest of politicians.

"A gentleman guided by compassion "who embraced bipartisanship."

In a tribute from the other side of the aisle, Republican leader, Senator Anthony Bucco, a friend, put it this way.

"Senator Codey has had the courage "over the course of his career "to step out of his comfort zone."

- I assume this office, at a time of political upheaval for the people of New Jersey.

Our faith in government had been shaken.

But this moment in history has given us an opportunity to chart a new course.

- And former governor and Senate President Dick Codey is here to talk about his years of serving the people of New Jersey.

Welcome back to the program, Governor.

- Great to be here.

- Good to have you here.

- My pleasure.

- Governor, you had quite a sendoff in Trenton on your last day in office from Democrats and Republicans.

It must have been very gratifying.

- I never cared about whether a legislator was a Democrat or Republican.

Gratifying, but not surprising.

I always worked with the Republicans, made sure that they were included.

They might've been a minority of the legislature, but in my mind, they were just like any other state senator, and that's the way it should be.

Anything I could do for them to help 'em, if they opposed me on a certain issue, so what, as long as it's never personal, I could care less.

- We don't see much of that though today, particularly on the national level.

- Well, on the national level, you got people that are just different.

But I always got along with all the Republicans in office, and I would keep in touch with them, and that's a very good thing.

- In what sense?

- On Sunday nights, I would call legislators when I was governor, half Republicans, half Democrats.

"Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Oh, well Governor, I gotta bill we just passed."

I'd say, "Tell you what, if I like it, I'll sign it, "and I'll sign it in your district."

So there's a person who's gonna be with me whenever he can and appreciates that.

It didn't take too much.

It's just having the sense of we're all in this together, whether we're Republicans or Democrats.

- So you're showing that you understand their concerns, and they listen to you, of course, as a leader or as a governor, as a senate president, and you showed you cared about their issues.

- Yes, just because they're the other party, they're not worth any less than I or my fellow Democrats.

- You can have disagreements, but agree to disagree.

- Right, but at the end of the day, I'm gonna help them just as much as my fellow Democrats.

- Well, let's go back in time and ask you how, in the first place, did you get involved in politics and at such a young age, you were elected to the assembly?

- Very easy, so I was born and raised up top, third floor of a funeral home, elevator only went to the second floor.

And when I turned 13, he says to me, "Okay, you gotta go out and work the parking lot."

The parking lot had 32 spots.

So my dad said to me, "Listen, if all 32 spots are filled, "it's the rule of the PP."

I said, "What do you mean?"

"If 32 slots are filled, "and a priest or a politician comes in, find a spot," spheres of influence, right, very easy.

- [laughs] A lesson in life.

- Yes.

And okay, a politician or a priest is a big deal.

- So that led you into politics, that philosophy?

- [Dick] I think so.

- And so how did it make the connection to run?

- My father also, every once in a while, would have me sit down next to him, and he'd read daily news editorial and asked me to explain it to him.

- So you had an understanding of politics, you think, from an early age and an interest?

- Yeah, absolutely, because when I was a kid in the neighborhood, all the politicians paid you [laughs] to take down their opponent's signs.

It's a good way to make money, - Not knock on doors, but take down their signs.

[laughs] So how did you get into the assembly?

Who approached you to run and how did that work out for you?

- Nobody approaches you, so at an early age, the chairman was Harry Lerner.

- [Kent] Ah-ha.

- My father knew him.

He lived not too far from us in East Orange, and there was redistricting, and there was an opening.

So fortunately, back in the 70s, I got a slot, and I've never looked back from there.

I've got a lot of ups and downs, ran off the line quite a few times.

- And got elected anyway.

- Always won.

- Even in Essex County.

- Yeah.

And people said, "Well, you can't win against the party."

I said, "No, we're gonna make the party the bad guys."

[laughs] That's all, it's simple as that, and we did and we won.

Sheila Oliver started with us off the line.

So a lot of people, state chairman ran with me and became an assemblyman.

So, a lot of people have done the same thing and been successful.

- So you get into the assembly.

You are elected years later into the state senate, and then you gain seniority, become senate president.

Where along the line, or did along the line, do you think about running for governor?

- Well, before that, one of the big things I did was I was young in the assembly, and they passed the right to have a casino.

And the speaker at the time, Bill Hamilton said, "Hey kid, you write the laws for the casinos.

"You're single, you can travel all over the world."

And I did and wrote all the laws, learned a lot about gambling and it was a great, great time in my lifetime.

And back then, I was known as the casino guy.

- In the legislature.

- Yeah.

And then I move on to the senate and work my way up.

- So you worked your way up to become senate president, but that took years in the making, didn't it?

- [Dick] Yeah.

- So how did that happen for you to get to a leadership role from what, I think you've even described it as for years, a back bench role?

- Yeah, I just made friends, came from a county that was strongly democratic and as long as the senate was democratic, it was gonna be a Democrat.

And then Don Lynch had it for a while and left politics and some others.

And the opening was mine, and I took it and ran with it and never looked back.

- So did you think about, at any point, running for governor?

- Of course.

Did people ask me about it, but I never got like, "Oh, I gotta run for governor," no, not at all.

I was happy being the president of the senate.

And then one day, during the summer or whatever that year was- - The phone rings and news, how did that happen?

- Here's how it happened.

So, I was at the racetrack.

I come home, and it's late and my wife says, "Hey, Brian Thompson from NBC called, "said you gotta call him right away."

I said, "Eh, I'll call him later."

And my wife was having minor surgery the next morning.

I said, "I'll call him after we go into surgery."

So she goes into surgery and I said...

I'm just running down to my office.

And I walk into the office, and they said, "Oh, good morning, Governor."

[laughs] "What are you talking about?"

"You don't know, do you?"

[laughs] "Know what?"

"Well, he's gotta resign this afternoon, "and you're gonna become the governor."

- So it was that quick, just a morning into an afternoon announcement.

- Can you imagine when she came out of the anesthesia when I told her she's the first lady?

[laughs] - Your wife.

- "Put me back under."

[both laughing] That's a true story.

- So you show up for the news conference, and you're sworn in- - No, no.

McGreevey said to me, "Dick, I gotta get a paycheck.

"Hold it off a couple of months."

I said, "Fine, no problem with me."

The interesting question I got at the news conference was, "Governor, under the law, you can take the salary "of the president of the senate or the governor, "which one are you gonna take?"

I said, "I don't know where you came from, "but I'm taking the highest."

- I have a family, a young family to support, and a wife who's gonna become first lady, [laughs] unbeknownst to her.

- Yeah, well no, she knew it then.

- Until a few hours ago.

So, Governor, you become governor, but you're also the senate president.

How do you balance those two roles, one in the legislature and one in the governor's office?

- Easy, the governor would like to control the legislative calendar and what bills get voted on and which don't, so it made it a lot easier.

- For you, with all of your experience?

- For me, but even the people in the legislature didn't resent it.

And I always kept in touch with the Republicans, always about everything, why do I care?

I don't care about whether somebody's a Republican or a Democrat.

Some of my biggest supporters were Republicans, Donnie Di and all the others.

It was just a, you know, hey, have 'em involved, have 'em engaged.

- We're talking about former governor, Don DiFrancesco, who was also the senate president who had served as governor before you when Christi Whitman went to Washington.

But backing up, Governor, when you were sworn in, when you became governor, there was a lot of mistrust from the public.

And there was a scandal.

Governor McGreevey had resigned in disgrace.

There was a scandal in his administration.

You had the responsibility of now restoring that public trust in your leadership role in both the legislature and in the governor's office.

- Well, one of the things I did was I got some street smarts, I think, at least.

So when we passed our budget and every budget got bad ratings from Wall Street.

So I called in Treasurer John McCormick, I said, "John, we gotta have a really good budget."

So he gave me a really good budget and I said, "Here's what I'm gonna do.

"You give me the name and phone number "of everybody who rates our bonds based on this budget, "I'm gonna call 'em up."

He said, "Well, that's my job."

I said, "No, this year it's my job, "'cause I bet you some of 'em live in New Jersey," and I did, and we got the best bond rating we had in years.

Just some street smarts, that's all.

- I have to ask you about your title.

You were called acting governor at the time, but I don't think you liked that, and that changed.

- No, so we changed the law.

- Just before you left office.

- Left office, in fact, I scraped it off the door.

[laughs] - So you are now known and will be known always as Governor Codey.

- Absolutely.

- Governor, you had a strong interest in mental health issues during your time in both the legislature and continued in the governor's office.

You went undercover to some of the state psychiatric hospitals.

Tell us about that.

- Yeah, the one place I went to Marlboro State Hospital.

I went undercover as an aide, a health aide.

It was horrendous.

I got there at midnight, midnight shift.

The two nurses were just sleeping.

When the patients got up in the morning, so if you're male, you work with the males.

They went to the basement, and there was clothes down there, and they would throw the clothes at the men, and they had to wear clothes that didn't match or didn't fit or anything else.

- So there were abuses that just you had heard about and you wanted to see firsthand?

- Well, I got the job and I got the job.

So I got the ID of a convicted rapist and social security number- - To go undercover.

- To go undercover, so, hey, oh gee, we looked this guy up, we can't hire him.

No, they never looked me up.

So I worked the midnight shift, and after a week, I exposed what was going on, and as a result, they eventually closed the hospital down.

I mean, it was horrible.

The only thing that was going on was some of the employees that were dealing drugs outta the back door who worked the midnight shift.

- So when you became governor, you continued, of course- - [Dick] Oh, absolutely.

- your advocacy for mental health issues, and you established a task force and if I recall, with dedicated funding.

- Yes.

- You and your wife, during your time in office shared a very personal story about your family.

What kind of impact did that have, do you think, Governor?

- Oh, tremendous, I mean, my wife, who's the nicest human being I've ever met to this day without question, loves kids, worked as a teenager in a daycare center to get money to go to college.

And after the birth of our first son, Kevin, came down with postpartum depression very bad.

And I can remember the night that I took her to Carrier Clinic, and I've got tears in my eyes, and she's just as lucid as possibly can be, telling me, "I'm never gonna get well.

"Just find somebody who will make a good mother to our son."

- She was suffering from postpartum depression, and that was very important to her during her time as first lady and your time as governor.

- Yes, and she got very friendly with Brooke Shields, went and testified for the US Congress on the issue of postpartum depression and got a federal law passed regarding postpartum depression.

- And that left a big impact on the people of New Jersey, because the governor and his wife spoke out about it, and certainly, that carried a lot of influence.

- Yeah, and there was also the incident with the shock jock who made some disparaging remarks about my wife.

Somebody's gotta tell that woman to- - A radio personality that made- - You called him a personality.

[laughs] - Made a comment about the first lady.

- She should go in the kitchen and bake cookies.

- And that set you off.

- Yeah.

I told him I'd kick his ass.

- But you were governor and- - Yes, but I was governor, but I was a husband first.

And wherever I went for the next couple of weeks, people applauded me.

In fact, the next day I got a call from Mayor Bloomberg from Germany, he was in Germany at the time, congratulating me on the way I handled it.

- You had a long list of accomplishments during a very short time in office, 14 months or so to be exact, Governor.

So you passed the Clean Air Act, smoking in public places.

- Oh yeah, I saw too many people from my neighborhood who died from smoking and the harm it did.

Smoking is so far down, it's great.

I mean, in the poor neighborhoods where I lived in Orange, it was an accepted thing that you smoked, and nowadays, you don't see it at all.

- Well, you worked on gun control, pay-to-play.

- [Dick] Absolutely.

- Junk food in school for kids.

You helped to ban that effort.

- [Dick] Yeah.

- So as a governor and as the Senate president, were you up and down the hall making these things happen from the legislature back to sign the bill?

- No, as long as I was interacting with the legislators of both parties- - It made it easier for you, do you think?

- Oh God, did it make it easier.

I'd say to the Republicans, "What do you need in a budget?

"And I don't care that you're not gonna vote for the budget.

[laughs] "I'm fine with that, as long as it passes."

- In the end.

- [Dick] Yeah.

- That's the most important thing.

- That's the street smarts in me.

- So, Governor, you've always been known as the everyday, relatable person, whether you were governor, senator, assemblyman, coming up through the ranks, you had a very high approval rating during your short time in office.

I think it was up in the 70%- - 70% to 16%- - Something like that.

So why didn't you run for governor?

- The guy had a boatload of money, okay, and was able- - Who was that person, would you tell us?

- Corzine.

- [Kent] Corzine.

- By the way, I do not dislike it all.

In fact, I think he's nice guy.

- I just wanted to hear that from you, Governor.

[Kent laughs] - That's fine.

I was with him just the other day.

I don't have any animosity towards him, and he was able to go to the county chairman elect, Joe Ferriero, and say, "Here's whatever amount "of money you want if you'll back me."

But, so I didn't want to have to face millions and millions of dollars of negative publicity.

I had a great run.

I was happy with it.

I was still gonna be president of the senate.

- Go back to your job.

- Yeah, so I wasn't angry, angry, and I don't regret it today, but as I said, I think the guy's a nice guy.

It didn't work for him as governor, a different kind of personality, but not a bad human being.

- It's interesting that in your time in office with so many accomplishments, that maybe you chose to step away and go back to your job as senate president.

So you never ran for office.

So let me ask you about your thoughts about the party line, because that is important in New Jersey.

Is it something that should be changed?

Does it interfere with too many other candidates who might wanna run for office?

The fact that you get the backing of the county chair, you usually get the party line and that means the first line on the ballot, and that's generally the person who wins in a primary.

- Yeah, but as I told you, I didn't have a lot of money, and we always beat the county line.

If you're smart enough to make the county line, the bad people lie, okay?

So, I think in time, it'll probably be done away with.

- Should it be done away with in your mind?

- Yeah, I think it should be a fair system.

- Would it be hard to do though in New Jersey, because it's been around for so long?

- Yeah, it's established on both sides of the aisle.

- What would it take?

- A governor with a lot of guts.

[chuckling] - And what next, convincing... - The legislature.

- To make that change.

- [Dick] Yeah.

- And so in your opinion, that is something that should be done.

You might have run on not being on the party line and winning, but for the most part, when you get the party line, you win in a primary.

- Correct, absolutely.

- That's the way it works.

- It doesn't mean that they pick bad candidates though.

- You were always known for your sense of humor.

You even wrote a book, "Me, Governor?"

- [Dick] Yeah.

[laughing] - What was your best memory serving as governor of New Jersey?

- The best thing I felt was how my wife established herself as a speaker and as a person who was going to try to help women.

And it became not unusual for me to come home and find some woman in my living room with my wife crying, because she had postpartum depression and was asking my wife to help her.

- That's quite an amazing story when you think about it.

- That would happen all time.

- She was the first lady, and she would talk one-on-one with people who had similar issues and encourage them.

- Absolutely, and gets recognized and spoken about on that issue a lot, not as much as she used to, no, but... - What does public service mean, and what does it mean to you?

- Public service is a great honor.

You have the ability to change things for the better.

I can remember I was governor, and there was two sisters who both needed kidneys, and the insurance company then was denying it.

First thing I did is I got on the phone [laughing] and in my roughest, toughest language to this insurance company that I won't mention, "Give these women these transplants, "let her, boom, for her sister," okay?

And like a year later they called me, and they're both doing great, and you can't buy that kind of happiness.

- So, it's helping people, gaining trust, showing leadership?

- Right.

So I did a $250 million bond issue for group homes for autistic children.

So it wasn't unusual for me to be out, and a couple would come up and thank me and have their autistic child, and I would always, always hug the child, 'cause I wanted them to know I may be a governor, but I care about your son or your daughter.

- What would you say to young people today, Governor Codey, to encourage them to seek out public service and understand how rewarding it is as you're saying it has been to you and to your family?

- Oh, it's the only way to really make a substantive change for the better for people, and isn't life about being a nice person and helping your fellow citizens?

It sure well be.

- How would you like Dick Codey to be remembered as the governor of New Jersey?

- As somebody who always tried to do the right thing and always put people ahead of himself and well, wanted to put New Jersey number one as it should be.

- What's next for Dick Codey?

What's next in your life, Governor?

- Well, I'm not gonna be running for public office anymore.

I have an insurance business, funeral homes, and coaching basketball, so I'm gonna be busy, and I'll still follow politics, for sure.

- Well, congratulations to you in service of 50 years for the people of New Jersey, Governor, and thank you for sharing your stories and your memories with us on this program.

We appreciate it.

- Thank you.

[audience clapping] - I did not run for it, and I did not seek it, but I will not run from the responsibility, and I will not shy from the challenges.

That's not how I was raised.

Whether I am president of the senate, acting governor, a candidate for governor, a husband, or just dad, I am always going to be the same person.

[bright music] - [Announcer] Funding for "Governors' Perspectives "with Kent Manahan" has been provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, committed to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, Seton Hall University, Seton Hall School of Law, and by Connell Foley, LLP.

[bright music continues] [bright music continues]