With a couple of weeks remaining until Election Day, Republican candidate Bret Schundler faces an uphill battle as he finds himself, at last count, 17 points behind Democratic rival James McGreevey. But Schundler's entire political career has been based on beating the odds and upsetting polls.

The political maverick managed to overcome the Democratic stronghold on Jersey City twice. And this year, he then went on to beat Bob Franks, the frontrunner for the Republican Party's gubernatorial candidate, in the primary election despite the fact that he touted some right-wing views that were considered too extreme for the moderate voters of New Jersey.

Those views have included his anti-abortion stance and early pronouncements about the citizens' right to carry a concealed weapon. Since then, he has promised not to change the existing New Jersey gun laws, and his stance on abortion has been buried under this election year's primary focus: taxes and education.

Before entering Jersey City politics in 1993, Schundler worked in the financial sector and amassed a fortune as a financial consultant with Salomon Brothers and C. J. Lawrence. Schundler grew up in central New Jersey, studied at the University of Haifa in Israel and graduated from Harvard University with honors. In 1993, an opportunity to run for mayor of Jersey City in a special election arose when then-mayor Gerald McCann's conviction on corruption charges left the position open and led to a special election.

Before Schundler, the last mayor of Jersey City to win on the GOP ticket held office in World War I. As a host of Democratic candidates entered the election, Schundler, a virtual unknown at the time, managed to capture the seat, taking Hudson County's Democratic machine by surprise. But Schundler proved that it was no fluke four years later when he was re-elected with 69 percent of the vote, the first mayor of Jersey City to be re-elected in 30 years.

During his two terms, Schundler oversaw unprecedented economic growth in Jersey City. The waterfront blossomed into a reflection of Wall Street, boasting skyscrapers, residential high rises, and commercial development. Of course, this was during the unprecedented period of American economic growth that has given the last decade of the millennium immediate legendary status.

The new development came at a price, however. Offering payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOTs, Schundler was able to attract corporate interest through tax breaks. Critics of his administration have argued that corporate interests overrode the interests of the existing Jersey City community by allowing companies to pay a fixed sum rather than be subject to tax increases like the rest of the homeowners.

The Republican poster boy could not boast of financial stability in Jersey City indefinitely. During the last two years of his term, wide budget gaps yawned open, and political opponents in state government said that tricky budget maneuvering had led to the holes.

For Schundler, PILOTs were the primary way to plug holes in the municipal budget. He continues to support his decisions and upholds his Jersey City record as a record of accomplishment. Fiscally speaking, critics denounced Schundler for prompting Jersey City's state-appointed nickname as a "distressed city" in 2000. As a result, all of the City's budgetary matters must be approved by the state.

According to Tom Gallagher, a spokesperson for Schundler, the label was something that the state gave cities to whom it was giving aid. He said that it was a new name to describe a state-aid program that was in existence before Schundler came to office.

Whether people agree with his methods or not, Schundler proudly touts his Jersey City record as an example of what he would like to do for the state. During a recent campaign tour of Jersey City, he told fellow Republicans running for seats in the assembly that cities like Patterson and Camden should modeled after Jersey City so that they can attract corporate interests and retain the existing community.

If elected governor, Schundler said, he will put a moratorium on all new state taxes. Following the ideology behind the $1.3 billion Bush tax cut, Schundler has pledged to significantly cut state taxes. For example, he has promised to eliminate 50 percent of school taxes for all senior citizens in New Jersey and provide more tax exemptions for veterans.

"Every year the income tax base, corporate tax base, and sales tax base grows," Gallagher said, explaining how the state could cut taxes without losing revenue. "So you do have an expanding base of revenue. Instead of spending that revenue on new government programs, use it to decrease tax burden."

Trying to build support for his tax-cut agenda, Schundler's camp has repeatedly pointed a finger at McGreevey for casting the deciding vote for former Gov. Jim Florio's $2.8 billion tax hike in 1990. In a written statement, Schundler's Campaign Manager Bill Pascoe wrote, "When the Florio-McGreevey tax hike passed, New Jersey lost 250,000 jobs."

Another tax-cut measure within the Schundler platform involves removing tolls on the Garden State Parkway in nine months. However, those tolls bring in $135 million of revenue for the state annually. In a recent debate, McGreevey said that Schundler's tax-cut proposals and plans to remove Parkway tolls would strip the state of $3 billion in revenue.

In order to compensate for the lost revenue, Schundler has turned to his background in the financial sector as a guide for conducting business. According to Gallagher, the traditional methods that the government uses to conduct business often lead to unnecessary inflationary costs. For instance, he said the average school takes five years to build at a cost of $40 million. Pointing to Jersey City's Golden Door Charter School, Gallagher said it cost less than half of that to build it in only 15 months. "Governments in general are designed to be more time-consuming and more expensive," Gallagher said. "Scrap those models and deliver models that work. Models used in the private sector."

Schundler is proud of the Golden Door Charter School, and has repeatedly said that he wants public schools to work in the same fashion, blaming the current system for spending its dollars outside the classroom. Under Schundler's plan, parents would have a variety of choices of where to send their children to school - public school, charter school, or parochial school. Charter schools are parent- or community-founded free public schools.