Publication Date: 4/5/2007

In 2004, when Jim McGreevey resigned as governor of New Jersey in the wake of an embarrassing scandal , he received a check for nearly fifteen grand for unused vacation days. He cashed it, I guess as sort of a parting gift.

He was replaced by Richard Codey, New Jersey’s Senate President, until a successor was duly elected and sworn in January of last year.

Like McGreevey, Codey is a Democrat. And like McGreevey, he got a nice check after he walked out of the governor’s mansion. His amount? $8,369.

He cashed it, but was puzzled by the whole thing. In his time in office, he didn’t see how he could have managed to take all those vacation days. As he cashed the check, he thought about giving the whole amount to charity.

But then he began having doubts about the propriety of that, too. So he wrote a check refunding the full amount back to the state treasury.

He didn’t call a press conference. He kept mum until a newspaper asked him about it.

You may be wondering, why did he do this? “It was just my sense of right and wrong,” Codey explained. “I would never criticize another governor who took” such money.

I like that modesty, and that sense of right and wrong. It’s not just unusual, it’s a little shocking coming from a politician. And I notice that though he would never criticize other politicians who keep such funds, we certainly can.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.