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An Elephant Steps In
Originally appeared in the Bergen Record on Thursday, November 12, 1992
The crowd from the Veterans Day ceremony was drifting away, and the
boy in the blue football jersey walked up to the man in the charcoal
suit and asked for an autograph. The man pulled out a Bic pen and
signed. The boy looked down at the name on the paper, then winced.
"I thought you were Clinton."
Bret Schundler laughed. "No, he's the other guy." Schundler is 33,
Harvard-educated, suburban-bred, politically trained by Democrat Gary
Hart, and affluent from his brokerage days during the 1980s boom on Wall
Street. He is also the first Republican mayor of Jersey City elected
since 1905, a new elephant among the old donkeys. It's a bit of a shock
to the system that Frank Hague built.
On his first day of work this week, Schundler cut his $60,000
mayor's salary in half. In Jersey City, where political graft is a
cottage industry, Schundler's pay cut was the equivalent of snow in
July.
Next, Schundler announced he would not fire anyone. This, too, was
a first. Jersey City mayors usually arrive with a legion of supporters
expecting jobs. Some of these people are even qualified.
Bret Schundler brought in one man, a corporation counsel. He says
he needed someone he trusts to keep watch over the books. Otherwise,
Schundler says, he's trying to keep most everyone else. Understandably,
the old Democratic donkeys are wondering about this new guy with the
Wall Street briefcase and the paisley tie. No patronage? Will Jersey
City be the same?
On Wednesday, at a Veterans Day ceremony at Jersey City's Pershing
Park, Schundler even trotted out an old Republican phrase, "points of
light", to describe dead soldiers. The crowd loved it.
"We need young blood," said ex-Teamster Joe Poindexter. "Don't tell
anyone, but I voted for him," says longtime Democrat Joe Sweeney.
"In a historic sense, Bret is a bit surprising," says former Mayor
Anthony Cucci in what surely is an understatement. "I'm not at all
offended that he's a Republican."
Ironically, it was Cucci's flawed tax plan that prompted Schundler
to quit his party and join the Republicans. Schundler, a former aide to
Gary Hart and an investment counselor at Salomon Bros., moved to a
Jersey City brownstone during the Yuppie gentrification of the 1980s and
discovered that a Cucci-led Democratic tax plan seemed to favor
supporters.
A coalition led by Schundler appealed. When Democratic state
legislators refused to budge, Schundler switched parties. "I'm not
supporting the party because of some obligation of birth," he says.
Schundler quit his job, invested his brokerage profits, spent a
year traveling with his wife, then returned to run for state senator. He
lost, but got 46 percent of the vote in a district where only 6 percent
of the voters are Republicans. When Democratic Mayor Gerald McCann was
convicted this year of bank fraud and tax evasion, Schundler ran for
mayor, the only Republican among 19 candidates. He promised lower taxes,
more cops, and a voucher system to allow children to attend private
schools. But a key to his plan is shoring up the city's meager 80
percent tax collection rate. If tax collections don't improve, the city
could go bankrupt.
In typical fashion, the race ended in a fight. One candidate was
even arrested for hitting an opponent's campaign worker with a tire
iron. For his part, Schundler survived muddy accusations that he was too
rich, too suburban, and too smart. He tallied some 10,000 of more than
50,000 votes cast and has to run again in May for a full, four-year
term.
"They were ready for a change," he said as he left the Veterans Day
ceremony. "I spoke about solutions."
In Jersey City, it was time.
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