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Schundler labors for Hispanic votes
Originally appeared in the Jersey Journal on 10/30/01
SECAUCUS - Like Republicans Christie Whitman and former President George Bush before her, Bret Schundler visited the Goya plant yesterday looking for Hispanic votes eight days before the gubernatorial election.
After greeting about 100 of the 1,000 employees in Spanish, Schundler spoke for a little more than a half-hour - hitting key campaign issues such as cutting taxes and homeland security.
"I think it says something about the Hispanic community and how it's being noticed in New Jersey," said Raphael Toro, a spokesman for the company. "We're an institution in the (Hispanic) community and in New Jersey, so it's only logical that he would come here."
The candidate told the crowd that the next governor must keep taxes down, particularly for businesses, in these unstable economic times to lessen the impact of a looming recession. Otherwise, jobs and development across the state will be at risk, he said.
Schundler unabashedly proclaims he received nearly 70 percent of the Hispanic vote when he ran for his second full term as mayor of Jersey City.
"Particularly in Hudson County, the Democratic Party as well as in statewide elections has believed they would do very well with Hispanic communities and so they're taking them for granted," said Bill Guhl, a spokesman for Schundler. "That's something I think they can't do when you consider that he enjoyed so much support from Hispanics and is actively reaching out."
Hudson County is known as a Democratic stronghold and its more than 240,000 Hispanics have, for the most part, fallen along those lines. This time, though, the Schundler campaign believes having a local gubernatorial candidate can change those usually predictable numbers, although his opponents disagree.
Regardless, the former mayor, who has been visiting many of the state's businesses including Unilever in Bergen County and Merck Pharmaceuticals where his opponent once worked, is still facing at least a 12-point deficit under Democrat Jim McGreevey, mayor of Woodbridge, in polls of likely voters.
But Toro made it clear that speaking at Goya is in no way an endorsement of the candidate, whom some say is too conservative for New Jersey voters. The former Democrat moved further to the right on issues like abortion and gun control during his nine years at City Hall.
Former Democratic Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Bill Bradley have also spoken at the company's only Hudson County location.
"They ask to come and we let them, all of the politicians. It's the least we can do. Mr. McGreevey's people had reached out to us and we agreed, but nothing was ever set up," Toro said.
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