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Bret Schundler For President?
Originally appeared in The Dartmouth Review, December, 1993
The debacle of the Clinton presidency thus far has
most Republicans optimistic about the GOP's chances in
the 1996 presidential election. Jack Kemp. Bill Bennett,
Bob Dole and Phil Gramm, to name a few, already are
beginning trips to New Hampshire in preparation for the
primary season three years hence. Yet, while all the
possible candidates have their respective strengths and
weaknesses, there has yet to emerge a true leader, a
Ronald Reagan type character, ready to lead the
Republican Party and the American people into the
twenty-first century.
As is to be expected, the potential candidates have
had a field day in terms of opportunities to criticize Bill
Clinton and his Washington cronies. However, there has
been little in the way of Republican ideas, of positive
suggestions as opposed to reactionary criticisms.
Tucked away in one of the country's more dilapidated
cities, one lone Republican is making a difference. Bret
Schundler is a 34 year old Harvard graduate who had to
wash dishes, clean bathrooms and work as a security
guard in order to pay his tuition. Instead of becoming a
Presbyterian minister after graduation, Schundler, then a
Democrat, went to Washington, D.C. where he worked as
an aide to Rep. Roy Dyson. In 1984, he worked on the
Gary Hart for President campaign.
After the campaign he got a job as an investment
banker on Wall Street. By 1991, he was a millionaire. He
lived in Jersey City, New Jersey, primarily because of its
proximity to New York City. Schundler was involved in
local government and soon grew disenchanted with the
Democratic Party's ties to special interest groups. On a
local level, he was upset at the city's high tax rates,
exploding budgets and overwhelming corruption.
Schundler gave up his Wall Street job, registered as a
Republican and ran for State Senate. He lost, gaining 45
percent of the vote. In 1992, after Jersey City had gone
through its fourth mayor in twelve months, a special run-off election with nineteen candidates was held. Schundler
won with less than 18 percent of the vote.
He had seven months before a new election against a
unified Democratic Party and their candidate, Lou Manzo.
Last May, even though Jesse Jackson came to Jersey
City a week before the election and attacked Schundler,
saying "The values Lou Manzo represents are the values of the USA, the
United States of America, not the Union of South Africa."
Schundler won 68 percent of the vote, the largest margin
of victory in Jersey City's history. As well, running as a
conservative Republican, he won 60 percent of the
Hispanic vote and 40 percent of the black vote. It is worth
pointing out that registered Democrats outnumber
registered Republicans in Jersey City by more than ten to
one.
So how did he do it? Schundler ran on three platforms:
lower taxes and fiscal responsibility, safer streets and an
end to machine politics. He cut his salary in half took on
the city's entrenched bureaucracy, put more police on the
street (crime has dropped fourteen percent), cut
property taxes and put the city on the road to a budget
surplus after being handed a $40 million deficit upon
entering office.
Finally. we have a politician who keeps his promises -- a
conservative politician at that. Schundler is winning as
Jersey City's first Republican mayor in 75 years. And he
is doing it through basic conservative ideas: safe streets
with more police, lower taxes, workfare instead of welfare
and school choice. Indeed, he has much to do with
pushing Governor elect Christine Whitman to pursue
more aggressively the tax issue in the recent
gubernatorial election.
What we have in Bret Schundler is a young, dynamic
and responsible politician. But more importantly, he is a
conservative politician who is winning elections.
To be an inspirational leader does not necessarily
require innovative ideas. Like a good conservative, Bret
Schundler has returned -- and returned successfully -- to
conservative values and policies. While we at The
Review cannot endorse political candidates, we cannot
hold back our exuberance at the prospect of a Republican
party and even a country led by Bret Schundler.
The successful future of Republican politics is staring
us in the face in Jersey City. The City's mayor says "I
love Jersey City. I feel it's my mission not only to benefit
our people, but truly to make this city a light to the
nation." It should be our mission to elect leaders like Bret
Schundler.
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