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Candidates for Governor Have Differences, on Tolls and in Polls
Originally appeared in the New York Times on October 18, 2001
TRENTON, Oct. 17 — A day after a radio debate that turned into a noisy free-for-all, the candidates for governor of New Jersey today sniped back and forth over parkway tolls and a new poll that may or may not show the race tightening.
Bret D. Schundler, the former mayor of Jersey City, brought his crusade to rid the Garden State Parkway of tolls to the steps of the State House, where he stood side by side with Gov. John G. Rowland of Connecticut, a fellow Republican, who told how that state got tolls off the Merritt Parkway in the 1980's.
Mr. Rowland encouraged New Jersey voters to back Mr. Schundler so they could improve their state's reputation. "A lot of people look at this state as the toll state," he said.
Mr. Schundler said that he could make the Garden State Parkway toll- free in only nine months, and at relatively little cost to the state. But his Democratic rival, James E. McGreevey, has questioned Mr. Schundler's honesty with the voters, asserting that it would be impossible, and irresponsible, to remove the tolls in less than a year but that only Mr. McGreevey was willing to say so.
"To say that we can't get it done in nine months, when the state of Connecticut got it done in less time than that, is just ridiculous," Mr. Schundler told a crowd of supporters. "Just go to the polls and vote for me, and you will see that it does happen."
Moments later, however, Mr. Rowland acknowledged that the tolls were removed from the Merritt Parkway in phases, and that the state's gas tax was increased as a result. And Mr. McGreevey's campaign later provided news clippings saying that it had taken 27 months for the Merritt Parkway to become toll-free, and longer than that to take down the toll booths themselves, and that the Connecticut gas tax rose from 13 cents a gallon in 1984 to 39 cents in 1991. It has since dropped to 25 cents, Mr. Rowland said today.
Since last week, Mr. Schundler has been banging away at the issue of taxation — tolls, for him, are just another tax — by saying he would cut taxes while Mr. McGreevey would raise them. And his aides crowed at the results of a new Quinnipiac University poll released today, which showed Mr. McGreevey's lead at only 49 to 39 percent among likely voters. Other recent polls have had Mr. McGreevey's lead at 14 points.
"We've said it all along, and this new poll bears it out," said Bill Pascoe, Mr. Schundler's campaign manager. "Voters looking for strong leadership, who know that the best way to keep our economy strong is to cut taxes, are moving to Bret."
The respondents to Quinnipiac's poll, which had a margin of sampling error of 3 percentage points, may have included a greater share of Republicans than the voting public, however. When asked which party they identified with, 34 percent of likely voters said they considered themselves Republicans, and 28 percent said Democrats. But recent state election results have shown a greater turnout among Democrats.
In addition, this was the first time that Quinnipiac polled likely voters about the governor's race. A Sept. 27 poll of registered voters showed Mr. McGreevey leading by 44-30 percent. In today's poll, among registered voters, Mr. McGreevey, remained ahead by the same 14 points, but now by 49-35 percent.
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