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Edwards Counts His Friends
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Race
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| Contributor | MontanaGov |
| Last Edited | MontanaGov Sep 03, 2006 01:55pm |
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| Category | Advertisement |
| News Date | Friday, October 28, 1988 07:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | If New Jersey Attorney General Cary Edwards were a baseball player, he'd want to play all nine positions simultaneously.
It's not that the former assemblyman from Bergen County lacks confidence in others or doesn't know how to delegate authority. He just likes to play a lot. Indeed, there are few in government these days who can match Edwards for sheer enthusiasm and energy or that uncanny ability to have his hands on so many things at once.
Edwards once took several staff members to another state for a conference and summoned them for a strategy session at midnight. "He drives us crazy," one aide says fondly.
His 15-hour-plus workdays are fueled by cigarettes, candy bars, and coffee. When he leaves the office at night, he takes an entourage of workers with him to a diner for more hours of shop talk and ham. If he ever were paid time and a half for overtime, the state would be broke.
But Edwards isn't some robotlike work machine. He laughs a lot, knows how to put controversies in perspective, and loves to talk about his family as well as issues.
Just before he was to appear at a crucial hearing on his appointment as attorney general in January 1986, I wrote a story about something he had done that could well have killed the appointment. The next morning, we met. "You did what you had to do," he said. "I respect that. "
Another time, I zeroed in on his wife's appointment to a high-paying state job. Edwards insisted he tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn't listen. "And that's not unusual," he confessed with a hearty laugh.
Now the former Oakland councilman is embarking on his bigget political quest, a probable run for governor. But it's going to take more than vigor and enthusiasm to win the prize. Edwards, like most other would-be governors, needs political friends, lots of 'em.
Of all the potential gubernatorial candidates in both parties, Edwards, a Republican, may know the most about state government and how to make it work. |
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