Replies

Memorandum
To: Schundler Coalition Leaders
From: Sal Risalvato
Date: March 11, 2004
Subject: Schundler v. McGreevey

A Perspective on Schundler v. McGreevey – NJ Statewide Research

I have attached the text of a memo I received concerning the results of a recent New Jersey political poll. The memo was written by Gene Ulm, a partner with Public Opinion Strategies – one of America’s leading political polling organizations. See link below.

The poll revealed:

1) That Jim McGreevey is the most vulnerable governor in America and that Bret Schundler is poised to beat him.

2) That if Bret Schundler runs for Governor, the odds of his winning the Republican nomination are extremely high.

3) That Bret’s property tax and school funding proposals are not just good policy, they are incredibly good political issues with the power to attract a huge number of Democrat and Independent voters to you.

4) That if Bret gets out his message on property taxes and school funding, he would likely win the governorship even if the Democrats replace Jim McGreevey with a stronger candidate like John Corzine, and even if the Democrats attack Bret savagely on divisive social issues.

These numbers tell us that Jim McGreevey cannot redeem himself with New Jersey’s voters. If Bret runs against him, Bret will win.

Since the Democrats cannot redeem McGreevey’s image, many political professionals believe they will focus on attacking the Republican candidates who enter the race for Governor. They will try to depict each Republican candidate as having no chance of victory so they can undermine Republican confidence and try to divide Republicans against one another. But these poll results suggest that this strategy will not work – that the voters have had it with Jim McGreevey and they ain’t buying him again.

Bret has been working to unify the Republican Party behind a practical, concrete solution to New Jersey’s property tax and school funding problems so he can position the Party for victory even if the Democrats ultimately change candidates. His enormous success in Democrat Jersey City was the result of his keeping focused on issues that everyone wanted to see addressed, and of his proposing workable solutions that almost everyone could unite behind. That is what Bret is doing now, and that is exactly what he should continue doing. Indeed, these poll results say that if Bret does continue doing what he is doing, and then decides to run for Governor, he will very likely be New Jersey’s next Governor.

I encourage you to share this information with as many members of your organization as possible – and to get involved with Bret’s “Empower The People” organization (sign up at www.empowerthepeople.org) as it works to lower your property taxes.

Jack McGreevey, who looks somewhat less than delighted, listens to his son, New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey, as the governor announces his resignation August 12, 2004 at the Statehouse in Trenton, New Jersey. Governor McGreevey admitted that he had a homosexual affair and has been conflicted with his sexuality since adolescence. With the Governor are his wife, Dina Matos McGreevey, center left, and his mother Veronica. Governor McGreevey has two children. NO MAGS NO SALES NO ARCHIVE NO TELEVISION NO USE HARMFUL TO DEMOCRATS REUTERS/Matt Rainey/The Newark Star Ledger

AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

(1) McGreevey's spin - that he has resigned because he is gay and people just won't understand - has been completely and robotically adopted by every local media source.

(2) McGreevey appointed his boyfriend as head of NJ Homeland Security. This is an outrage that would have been roughly equivalent to Clinton making Monica Lewinsky FBI Director before details of their affair leaked out.

(3) McGreevey's closest fundraising crony Chuckie Kushner has not only violated campaign financing laws and fraud statutes left and right but he has impeded federal criminal investigations.

(4) McGreevey operative D'Amiano, a connected mob guy, extorted extra money from a developer who had already bribed McGreevey and McGreevey is on tape accepting the bribe in coded language.

(5) Although the Democrats violated the NJ State Constitution by replacing Torricelli with Lautenberg at the last minute, claiming that they had to do it or the electorate wouldn't have a "real choice", McGreevey has unethically gamed the timinmg of resignation so the Democrats can anoint his successor rather than holding an election.

This whole situation is a sleazy Democrat operation and it is succeeding beyond the Democrats' wildest hopes.