(WEST ORANGE, OCTOBER 3) - Schundler for Governor campaign manager Bill Pascoe today issued the following statement: “Jim McGreevey’s not green, he’s red -- as in red-faced and red-handed, caught with his hand in the cookie jar. While candidate McGreevey now claims to want to protect the environment, McGreevey the former corporate lobbyist once worked hard to defeat the passage of laws and regulations that would have put in place key environmental protections.

“Fact: In 1987 and 1988, Jim McGreevey worked as a corporate lobbyist for a major pharmaceutical manufacturer.

“Fact: During his tenure there, the Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Water Conservation fined his employer $480,500 for polluting New Jersey’s environment.

“Fact: As a lobbyist, McGreevey actively opposed the passage of several key pieces of environmental legislation. For example, McGreevey opposed the Environmental Health Assessment Program. McGreevey opposed the Senate Republican Hazardous Waste Minimization package. McGreevey also tried to gut legislation that would close a toxic waste pipeline in Toms River. And Jim McGreevey even opposed animal rights legislation that would have prohibited the Draize test -- which tests the toxicity of oven cleaner and other chemicals by rubbing it in the eyes of RABBITS! What’s he got against rabbits, anyway?

“So what environmental legislation did McGreevey support? He supported ‘ECRA Reform’, a code phrase for amendments that would gut the ECRA law to allow a polluter to get away with just cleaning up the portion of contaminated land that it plans to sell, rather than clean-up the entire parcel.

“And to top it off, now Jim McGreevey is trying to take credit for closing the Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island. He dares to make this claim even though the law partner of his top political patron, Senator Ray Lesniak, and other prominent Union County and Middlesex County Democrats stand to make millions of dollars in profit from a sweetheart deal to build a huge transfer station in Linden to process the New York City trash that will be diverted from Staten Island.

“Jim McGreevey says that he has a comprehensive plan to protect New Jersey’s environment. But protecting the environment doesn’t mean lobbying to make the rules easier for polluters, and it doesn’t mean keeping quiet while your friends and financial supporters cut lucrative deals to accept New York City’s garbage.”