A Rock Star for New Jersey in the Political Arena, Too
By JEREMY W. PETERS





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He calls her “Mrs. C.” And she calls on him to add a little celebrity gloss to her presidential campaign.

Jon Bon Jovi and Hillary Rodham Clinton have been friends for more than
a decade, uniting for state dinners at the White House and campaign
fund-raisers in the Hamptons.

If it seems strange that a rocker who sings paeans of working-class New
Jersey is so friendly with a senator and former first lady who chose a
Celine Dion song for the theme of her presidential campaign, consider a
few items on Mr. Bon Jovi’s social calendar in the last few months.

There were dinners in East Hampton with Mrs. Clinton and another
Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards. Senator Barack Obama,
her fiercest rival for the nomination, asked Mr. Bon Jovi to hear him
speak in Midtown Manhattan. And Al Gore caught up with him in London
for a photo op.

Mr. Bon Jovi, 45, whose tousled golden mane and porcelain-white smile
have twice helped him earn People magazine’s award for sexiest rock
star, can lay claim to an unofficial new title these days: the Garden
State’s elder statesman.

In New Jersey, it is practically a requirement for any high-ranking
politician to attend at least one of his shows. And despite his
left-leaning political allegiances, Democrats and Republicans alike
seek him out as if he were New Jersey’s very own Bono.

When former Gov. Christie Whitman was deciding whether to build a
sports arena in Camden, she consulted Mr. Bon Jovi — part owner of the
Arena Football League team the Philadelphia Soul — and took his advice
to pass it up. When Newark needed a marquee name to christen the
Prudential Center, one of its most important new developments in
decades, it turned to him.

“He basically says, ‘Hey, here’s where I’m from, like it or not,’ ”
said Ms. Whitman, a Republican who later became administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency under President Bush. “And that’s
refreshing for the state of New Jersey because we don’t have a lot of
that.”

Former New Jersey governors, senators and state legislators who have
worked or played with him over the years say it is a combination of his
fealty to New Jersey and his blue-collar authenticity that draws
politicians to him. And as someone who sings about his “plastic
dashboard Jesus” and performs at concerts to fight global warming, his
appeal is broad.

Unlike many other celebrities, he keeps his thoughts about the war in
Iraq and President Bush largely to himself. While fellow New Jerseyan
Bruce Springsteen is not shy about taking Mr. Bush to task and speaks
out against the war on his new album, Mr. Bon Jovi is more comfortable
talking about poverty and affordable housing. And his attention to
those causes has earned him an audience with some of the country’s
biggest political names.

“My impression of Jon Bon Jovi is every time he’s been asked to help
his state, he’s done it,” said former Gov. Thomas H. Kean Sr., a
Republican. “We have an enormous amount of entertainers in New Jersey,
and I can’t say that about a lot of them.”

Mr. Bon Jovi’s high visibility recently touched off speculation in
gossip columns that he had designs on running for office, possibly
governor, because he is keeping his estate in Middletown even though he
and his family spend most of their time in Manhattan now.

But Mr. Bon Jovi dismissed the rumors. Life as a rock star, he said,
suited him quite well. In a recent telephone interview from London, he
recounted a conversation with former President Bill Clinton about two
years ago.

The two were on a flight to Maryland for a day of horse racing at
Pimlico with some friends when someone asked them to compare
occupations. “He said ‘Mr. President, which is better, your job or
Jon’s?’ I said, ‘I know the answer to that. Mine, because I get to keep
the airplane and the house.’ ”

John Francis Bongiovi Jr. was born into a working-class
Italian-American family in north central New Jersey. His father is a
marine turned hairdresser, and his mother, a onetime Playboy bunny.

Superstardom came to him and his band in the 1980s with hits like
“Livin’ on a Prayer” and “You Give Love a Bad Name” when the formula
for successful rock ’n’ roll was big hair plus big sound equals big
sales. He has had just as many hairstyles as Cher, whose songs he once
produced, and a penchant for jeans tight enough to suit Robert Plant.

His political hobnobbing began in the 1990s, when he started popping up
at events during the Clinton years: a state dinner here, a White House
Correspondents’ Association dinner there. Mr. Bon Jovi even sang to Mr.
Clinton, whose 1992 presidential campaign piqued his political
sensibilities, at Radio City Music Hall for the former president’s 50th
birthday celebration in 1996.

Yet his political side came as somewhat of a surprise to people who know him.

“Who would have thought?” said John S. Wisniewski, a Democratic
assemblyman who graduated from Sayreville War Memorial High School with
Mr. Bon Jovi. “I’m probably one of the few people in my graduating
class who was involved in politics then and involved in politics now.
And most of my friends looked at me like I had two heads.”

In the 2000 presidential campaign, Mr. Bon Jovi held a fund-raiser at
his Middletown home for Mr. Gore. And at campaign rallies, Mr. Bon Jovi
and Richie Sambora, a member of his band, performed acoustic renditions
of their hits. He remains friends with Mr. Gore, and when the two got
together this month in London, their conversation quickly turned to the
2008 election.

Mr. Bon Jovi said Mr. Gore asked whether he had endorsed anyone for
president, and he replied that he had not. “My deepest hope was that he
was going to put his hat back in the ring,” Mr. Bon Jovi said. “I’ve
been waiting for that for eight years.”

In 2004, Mr. Bon Jovi jumped back into the role of rock star Democratic
fund-raiser and held an event for John Kerry at his home. Mr. Bon Jovi
also joined Mr. Kerry and his running mate, Mr. Edwards, on the road.
He and Mr. Edwards found they had a common interest in poverty issues.

Mr. Bon Jovi and Mrs. Clinton have been known to delve into issues like
affordable housing and his work building homes with Habitat for
Humanity in Philadelphia. But their conversations are not always so
heavy. “She seems to really like to hear me play,” Mr. Bon Jovi said.

Mr. Bon Jovi donated $2,300 to Mrs. Clinton this year, as much as he is
allowed to under the law. “I have no issue with a woman in power,” he
said. “My life has always been run by women. If it wasn’t my mother, it
was my wife. And if it wasn’t my wife it was my daughter.”

While Mr. Bon Jovi rubs elbows with some national political stars, he
has been involved locally. Last year, when the state was looking for a
catchy advertising campaign to stimulate tourism, Mr. Bon Jovi agreed
to donate the rights to his hit “Who Says You Can’t Go Home,” and the
state made it the theme of a national television commercial. Now there
is a bill before the Legislature to make it the state’s official song.

While his political activism might have won him the respect of many of
New Jersey’s political leaders, not everyone has been so blown away. “I
know he’s been terrific and up front for New Jersey causes,” said
Brendan Byrne, an 83-year-old Democrat who was governor from 1974 to
1982. “But I’m more in the Frank Sinatra era.”

Senator Frank Lautenberg, who is also 83, said that at his age, it took
a little effort to be a Bon Jovi fan. “In order to watch Bon Jovi,
there is a particular requirement of spectators: Stand up. Don’t sit
down,” said Mr. Lautenberg, who went to one of Bon Jovi’s shows at the
Prudential Center. “So I had to stand for two and a half hours.”

Bon Jovi’s music has a similar effect on Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who says
he prefers classical music and jazz to rock. Still recuperating from a
near-fatal crash on the Garden State Parkway, Mr. Corzine led party
guests at Mr. Bon Jovi’s Labor Day party onto an empty dance floor when
Mr. Bon Jovi began singing “Who Says You Can’t Go Home.”

Unfortunately for New Jersey boosters, it took place at Mr. Bon Jovi’s house in East Hampton.

Il est vieux cet article.........d'avant son anniversaire, il n'a plus 45 mais 46 ans...........quant à s'investir plus avant dans la politique, Jon a démenti officiellement et dans nombre d'interviews et déclaré qu'il préférait rester un chanteur plutôt que de penser à devenir gouverneur.........