Counting Out Cahill

Republican William T. Cahill was elected Governor of New Jersey in 1969 by the largest margin--500,000 votes --in the state's history and within two years was counted among the most successful Governors in the country. His impressive string of accomplishments included stiff environmental protection laws, a no-fault insurance plan, a remarkably popular lottery and a multimillion-dollar mass-transit system. Moreover, he had delighted New Jersey voters by wooing the New York Giants into moving across the Hudson with a new football stadium that will open in 1975. By almost any measure, he seemed a cinch for re-election to a second term this year. P:Then things began to come apart. Legislators overwhelmingly rejected Cahill's coveted tax-reform package --partly because it included an income tax--and refused to confirm his able pro-busing commissioner of education, Carl L. Marburger, for another term. Worst of all, one after another of the men in his administration were implicated in New Jersey's multilayers of political corruption being exposed by U.S. Attorney Herbert J. Stern.

In a three-year campaign that has snared mayors, legislators, judges, highway officials, postmasters and even a Congressman, Stern has won indictments against eight defendants (three have been convicted) with close ties to Cahill. Among them were his 1969 campaign manager, Nelson Gross, former State Treasurer Joseph M. McCrane and former Secretary of State Paul J. Sherwin. Gross and McCrane were indicted for advising fat-cat contributors to write off their campaign contributions on their tax returns as business expenses. Sherwin was convicted for seeking a kickback from a highway contractor.

Cahill was not directly connected with the scandals, but the Watergate-like atmosphere tainted his promising future. Last week he was resoundingly defeated in the Republican primary for nomination to a second term by Charles W. Sandman Jr., 51, a conservative U.S. Congressman who had lost to Cahill in the 1969 primary and prides himself on financial acumen.

Using $15,000 in savings--some of it back pay accumulated during his seven months as a German war prisoner --he began buying seashore real estate in 1945. It now makes up the bulk of his net worth of $300,000. His Democratic opponent next fall will be Brendan T. Byrne, 49, a former superior court judge who likes to recall having been described in the late '60s by Mafioso Angelo ("Gyp") DeCarlo as a politician who could not be bought. Indeed, he likes the tag so much that he used it as his campaign slogan and rolled to an easy victory in a state clearly surfeited with scandal.

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