CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE – Michael Donohue is a political animal.
A lifelong Republican, he served as Cape May County GOP chairman, ran for Assembly twice, and enjoys a good political scrum, arguing conservative policy and talking points.
But once he became a New Jersey Superior Court judge he had to publicly abandon his political activities for nearly four years.
“As a judge you have to give up to a great extent your right to free speech, your right to freedom of association, which I thought I can do,” Donohue said. “I did a lot in politics and the law before I went on the bench. As time went by it got harder instead of easier to forfeit those rights.”
Not being allowed to publicly comment on political matters bothered him.
“I underestimated how much I would miss it all and how much I would miss the larger world,” Donohue said. “There’s a whole world that as a judge you’re really not allowed to be a part of. I found it very isolating. It was like monastic. You’re kind of cloistered away in this secured area of the courthouse. In the outside world you’re really extraordinarily limited who you can associate with publicly. You can’t have any voice publicly.”
Donohue said his family noticed that he grew unhappy over time.
“I missed it all. I missed being in the arena. I missed my friends,” Donohue said.
On March 4 Donohue announced he would be stepping down from the bench, reentering private law practice, and continuing living a political life.
For Donohue, the decision to resign his judgeship came after soul-searching and reflection.
“I described it (politics) as my first love and I missed it a lot more than I thought I would,” Donohue said.
He said his epiphany came after last Thanksgiving when he spoke with his former law firm partner. He then spoke with his family about his malaise.
“I talked with my wife and kids and they all said, ‘We all know you’re not really happy in this job. You like the work but you’re not really happy. You should pursue what will make you happy,’” Donohue said. “I was pretty much ready to make my decision.”
Donohue noted he was impressed with Congressman Jeff Van Drew’s (R-2) decision to change parties.
Van Drew, who was elected to Congress in 2018 as a Democrat, opposed the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
In December, Van Drew switched parties and became a Republican. At Van Drew’s request, Trump held a campaign rally in Wildwood in January which attracted thousands to the resort community.
Donohue said Van Drew was courageous for switching parties, and spoke with the congressman about his conversion to the GOP.
“There’s something to that that’s inspirational. That was a very difficult decision for him to make. It changes his whole life,” Donohue said.
He said Van Drew’s decision wasn’t something he predicted.
“I think he made the right decision. It couldn’t have been easy. I think it took great courage,” Donohue said.
Once Donohue had his family’s support and that of his former law partner, he made the leap.
“I didn’t think it would happen,” Donohue said of leaving the bench. “I thought it would be an interesting conversation and I’d get over the hump and move on. Things happen for a reason. I’m a big believer of that and the universe speaks to you. It just felt right.”
Donohue was chairman of the Cape May County Republican Organization from June 2010 to 2015.
He served in the criminal court before going to the family court for the past several months.
Donohue said he will be supporting Van Drew’s re-election bid in November and the reelection of Cape May County Republican Chairman Marcus Karavan.
His focus now will be mediation and hearing officer services in the practice of law and will be consulting for various political candidates and organizations.
“Local campaigns have gotten very sophisticated and I believe can benefit from somebody with my experience,” Donohue said. “I have 25 years of experience in politics. I think I can really bring to bear for our local and county candidates and eventually helping out the state candidates.”
He noted that it was a historic moment to become politically involved.
“I think when history is happening and you’re living in it you don’t see it. Obviously, Trump was Earth-shattering and depending on your point of view good or bad,” Donohue said. “In this moment when we have this impeachment which in my opinion was really purely partisan and you could characterize the president’s actions as something you strongly disagree with and find offensive maybe, but that doesn’t make them illegal or impeachable. That really concerned me watching the country go through this.”
Van Drew’s conversion to the Republican Party was “very substantial historically.”
“I played my small part in politics and I hope to do that again and I hope to be a small part of this historic year in the country in supporting Congressman Van Drew and other Republican candidates supporting the president,” Donohue said. “We’ll see how it goes. I don’t have any plans to run for office at the moment.”
He said politics is both “timing and opportunity.”
“For now, I’m just looking to work for our candidates and try to hold what we have and pick up other seats where we can,” Donohue said.
As a judge, Donohue couldn’t attend the Trump campaign rally in January. He watched it online rally and saw many of his friends in the crowd.
“I would like to have been there but I wasn’t going crazy,” Donohue said. “It was really neat anyway. No matter what your point of view, to have the president of the United States come to the Wildwoods Convention Center was pretty neat to see. He might be back.Who knows?