Governor Buys Vacation Home Off Long Island : Kean Pushes N.J. but Is Keen on N.Y.

When Gov. Thomas H. Kean launched a $3-million tourism campaign with the theme “New Jersey and you, perfect together,” it seems he meant better you than him.

For himself, he’s chosen a vacation home in neighboring New York.

The Garden State’s chief cheerleader has appeared in radio and television ads with actress Brooke Shields and comedian Bill Cosby to extol the beauty of New Jersey’s beaches and mountains.

In March, however, Kean bought a $980,000, 10-acre estate on New York’s Fishers Island, 22 miles off Long Island, that includes a mansion and three small islands.

Kean bought the Reynolds du Pont Estate after selling another Long Island retreat that had belonged to the millionaire governor’s family for years, Deputy Press Secretary John Samerjan said today.

He said Kean did not look at property in New Jersey or any other state.

“The Kean family has always had a vacation home on Long Island. This is nothing new. The governor simply sold one piece of property and bought another one,” Samerjan said.

New Jersey has an official gubernatorial getaway on Long Beach Island, which Kean uses occasionally for functions. The popular Republican has shown a penchant for snubbing state-owned properties, choosing to stay at his family estate in Livingston rather than move to the official governor’s mansion, Drumthwacket, in Princeton.

Kean’s new New York estate, previously owned by Reynolds du Pont Jr. of the Delaware chemical fortune, is on Fishers Island, off the tip of Long Island’s North Fork. It may be reached by ferry from New London, Conn., or by private plane.

Kean, who traces his family tree to New Jersey’s first constitutional governor, has made boosting the state’s oft-maligned image a priority. His success at building pride in New Jersey, along with a booming economy, contributed to his November reelection by the largest landslide in state history.