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 Race for governor is rising in awareness
Originally appeared in the Trenton Times on 11/04/01
TRENTON -- Those willing to turn their attention Tuesday from security concerns to politics will have the chance to vote for the state's next governor, elevating one of the two urban candidates running to one of the most powerful statewide posts in the country.
The election pits Democrat Jim McGreevey, a dogged, grass-roots campaigner with a cautious political style, against the iconoclastic Republican, Bret Schundler, a telegenic conservative willing to espouse unorthodox remedies for such knotty problems as urban school reform.
One of the country's two major off-year elections, with the Virginia governor's race, the New Jersey contest once was viewed as an important gauge of the Bush administration's popularity. It has been relegated to a side show in recent weeks, as citizens turn their attention to the more pressing concern of how to cope with the discovery of anthrax-laden mail being shipped through the capital's major mail processing center.
Despite these distractions, the election promises to be a showdown between two determined politicians who have endured significant political trials en route to winning their party's backing.
McGreevey, 44, the mayor of Woodbridge since 1991, was a virtual unknown outside Middlesex County who could not count on the backing of the party's southern wing before he took on the popular incumbent governor, Christie Whitman, in 1997 and came within a few thousand votes of ousting her. Last year, he essentially secured the party nomination when his unexpected show of strength convinced the state's best-known Democrat, U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli, to stay out of the race.
Schundler, 42, until recently the mayor of the state's second largest city, Jersey City, has also fended off powerful, entrenched interests during his decade in politics. In 1992, he beat the long-ensconced Democratic party in Jersey City and more recently, stunned GOP regulars by beating Bob Franks, the party organization's choice, in the gubernatorial primary.
The election promises almost certain disappointment for veteran New Jersey politician William Schluter, a moderate Republican state senator for many years, who is running as an independent. Schluter has had trouble attracting funds and was shut out of the major debates.
After a brief hiatus in campaigning, observed in deference to the national mourning following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the two main candidates have thrown themselves back into politics, taking swipes at each other in several feisty debates.
While questions of security against terrorism hover in the background, the main battlefronts in the governor's race remain education and taxes.
Schundler, who is desperate to dent McGreevey's double-digit lead in the polls, has tried to link him to former Gov. Jim Florio as a "tax-and-spend liberal." McGreevey voted for Florio's $2.8 billion tax hike in 1990 when he was in the state Legislature although he also voted for Whitman's tax cuts some years later.
Throughout much of October, McGreevey declined to rule out using tax increases to close a shortfall in state revenues that could total $1.5 billion by June, calling such pledges "irresponsible" in times of emergency, while promising to have government "live within its means." He said he would consider capping the NJ Saver (tax rebate) program for families earning more than $200,000 and merging some government services, such as the highway authorities, to cut spending.
After weeks of goading from Schundler, he backtracked in the most recent televised debate and pledged not to raise taxes if elected.
McGreevey counters that Schundler is the one promising big spending -- $3.2 billion, he said -- for populist proposals like eliminating the Garden State Parkway tolls and cutting seniors' property tax bills in half. He said Schundler cannot keep his promises.
McGreevey repeatedly has attacked the Republican's proposal to provide state income tax credits to boost scholarship donations to move public school children into private and parochial schools in order to save on school construction costs. McGreevey said the plan would undermine public education, while costing the state almost $200 million, according to a study by the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services.
Schundler said that all of his proposals would cost no more than $600 million next year and by including tax cuts would stimulate the state economy, which he predicts will rebound by July.
Schundler, who also supports school vouchers and income tax credits to help families pay for private schools, accuses McGreevey of failing to offer prescriptions for reform.
McGreevey said he would pursue "practical reforms" such as clearer standards for teachers and students, simpler and more reliable tests and tenure reform to ensure teacher accountability. He has said he will promote school choice by creating career academies within districts which students could choose for specialized training in fields that are in demand.
The two candidates have also wrangled over eliminating tolls on the Garden State Parkway.
Schundler calls his plan to eliminate tolls from the parkway a "leveraged tax cut" that would cost $130 million -- the $185 million collected annually in tolls minus the $55 million cost to run toll collections.
McGreevey calls that plan dishonest, saying the administration would need to first find a source of revenue to cover the $600 million in existing highway debt, something he said could not be done in a matter of months.
While Schundler has accused McGreevey of doing the bidding of special interests, such as organized labor and the teachers' lobby, the Democrat in turn accuses him of being linked to right wing groups such as gun owners and the religious right.
Schundler is opposed to abortion, fetal stem cell research and the licensing and registration of guns.
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