Gov. Thomas Kean giving the keynote address at the 1988 GOP convention in New Orleans.
N.J. GOP icon Tom Kean to skip convention
He is widely regarded by Republicans and Democrats as a bipartisan unifier and one of America’s most respected moderate voices on race, education, the economy and terrorism. But, for the first time in 52 years, former Gov. Tom Kean is skipping the Republican National Convention.
Kean said he harbored too many differences with the immigration and economic policies of the presumptive GOP nominee for president – Donald Trump.
Kean joins other Republican luminaries, like former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney and former New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman, who are skipping the four-day GOP fest next week in Cleveland.
But Kean’s absence is particularly significant. He was often seen as someone who could find common ground with all factions.
In an interview in which he reflected on his half-century in GOP politics, Kean, who won praise in 2004 for his evenhanded chairmanship of the 9/11 Commission and is cited in polls as New Jersey’s most popular governor, said he was so disillusioned with Trump and the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, that he might not vote for president.
Kean, 81, said that he had met Trump and Clinton over the years and that he liked them personally. But as politicians, he said, he finds both lacking.
He views Trump as a loose cannon who should “listen to people and stop tweeting at 11 o’clock at night.” He says Clinton has a “good heart,” but is “so contrived that it comes across as phony.”
“I’d like to support the nominee of my party but I really don’t know,” Kean said, in an hourlong phone call from his office in Far Hills. “If it comes to the point where you disagree on too many issues, you can’t vote for him.”
But Kean added that “it would be difficult” to vote for a Demo¬crat, though he noted that he had previously. In 1960, as a 25-year-old teacher, Kean incurred the wrath of his family by supporting Democrat John F. Kennedy over Republican Richard M. Nixon.
Kean’s decision to pass on the Republican convention is yet another illustration of the deep fissures in the party.
New type of GOP
The national Republican convention was once viewed as a rite of passage and neutral hub where dissonant factions could not only argue over issues but attempt to stitch together some form of unifying political umbrella – all in the hope of defeating the Democrats at the polls. But in this increasingly caustic election year, political figures, like Kean, who regularly extolled the need to find common ground, have largely been sidelined, eclipsed by a new wave of Trump supporters.
Instead of going to Cleveland, Kean said, he will fly to Palo Alto, Calif., to speak to the Rita Allen Foundation, the Princeton-based group that finances projects by young scientists.
For Kean, however, the decision to miss the convention is especially personal – and historic.
At 13, he attended his first convention in 1948 — with his father, Robert, a New Jersey congressman. He became a regular in 1964, when he led floor rallies on behalf of the ill-fated presidential candidacy of Pennsylvania Gov. William Scranton.
The family roots in politics run deep. Kean’s grandfather, Hamilton Fish Kean, and great-uncle John Kean were U.S. senators. Another great-uncle, Hamilton Fish, was a New York governor, a U.S. senator and a secretary of state. Eleanor Roosevelt was a cousin. Kean is also related to William Livingston, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and New Jersey’s first governor.
But Kean’s leadership style was what made him attractive.
In 1976, Kean played a role in President Gerald Ford’s decision to choose Kansas Sen. Robert Dole as his running mate. In 1988, Kean was selected to deliver the convention’s keynote speech – which solidified his status as an up-and-coming voice of moderate Republicanism.
Kean said, however, he had become disenchanted with recent GOP conventions. In 2012, he left early, before the cascade of balloons on the final night when the presidential and vice presidential candidates are introduced.
“It’s a television show. They’re all staged now,” Kean said. “The only fun for me is to go and see old friends. But there won’t be a lot of people there I know.”
Kean added that had not played any role in the party platform discussions. And he left little doubt that he had become deeply disappointed in his former protégé — Governor Christie, a onetime moderate who has embraced strident conservative views and is a Trump supporter and adviser.
“I don’t want to go and say something that would embarrass our governor,” Kean said. “So I’ll just stay home.”
"Passing of the baton'
“This is definitely a transition point,” said Alvin Felzenberg, a University of Pennsylvania professor and former New Jersey assistant secretary of state who wrote the 2006 biography, “Governor Kean: From the New Jersey State House to the 9/11 Commission.”
Felzenberg, who was the communications director of the 9/11 Commission, called Kean’s decision “a passing of the baton from one generation to another” — from a Republican Party that could look to elder statesmen, like the Bushes and Keans, for guidance to the much more free-rolling atmosphere that Trump embodies.
“In some ways, Tom is one of the last gentlemen in politics,” Felzenberg said. “He loves combat, he loves sport, but he would sit down with Democrats. There is a time to argue and a time to come together. It’s hard to tell where we are now.”
Kean’s son, Tom Jr., the Republican state Senate leader from Westfield, said he planned to attend the convention – but only for a day. Without his father there, Tom Jr. said the GOP would be missing an important voice.
“He loves being involved in the fray,” Kean Jr. said. “He likes helping to find common ground and helping to find solutions and helping to find an answer.”
North Jersey politicians of both parties lamented Kean’s decision.
Paul DiGaetano, recently elected chairman of the Bergen County Republican Party, called Kean “iconic in Republican politics in New Jersey.” And describing Kean as “an elder statesman,” state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, the Teaneck Democrat, called Kean’s absence from the convention a “big, important statement” against Trump.
In the interview, Kean said he would be happy to advise Trump “on policy, sure.”
“If someone is running for president and asks advice, you give it to him,” Kean said. “I’d do the same thing if Hillary called me.”
But neither candidate has called, Kean said.
As for campaigning for Trump, Kean said he would need to gauge the candidate’s tone and policies.
Trump will “have to be a little different” than the combative candidate of the past year who has called for a temporary ban on immigration by Muslims, the building of a wall to block Mexican immigrants and a complete restructuring of America’s trade policies with foreign nations, Kean said.
America greatly needs a unifying presence, Kean said, “a Roosevelt or a Reagan.” He said, “You need someone who can communicate unity and optimism and show a path for people.”
He added wistfully, “I don’t see anybody like that.”
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