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Bergen Record

Cancellation of arena vote boosts Schundler

Friday, September 7, 2001

By CHARLES STILE
Trenton Bureau

From the moment he became the Republican nominee for governor, Bret Schundler was painted as an out-of-touch conservative championing views that were out of sync with most middle-of-the-road voters.

The attack, waged by Democratic rival Jim McGreevey, seemed to work. One statewide poll late last month gave McGreevey a 19-point edge.

But when a crucial vote on the proposed bill for a Newark arena was canceled Thursday, Schundler scored a quick victory that could shift the focus of the campaign.

Instead of an idealogue, Schundler emerged as an I-told-you-so prophet, whose early opposition to the bill reflected the will of the public, not the special interests.

He contrasted sharply with McGreevey, who first supported the bill, then announced early Thursday that he now opposed it. He said the bill had become larded with new "pork-barrel" spending items designed to persuade reluctant lawmakers to approve it.

"This draft bill that is now before the state Assembly today is an example of Trenton at its worst," McGreevey said.

But Schundler, who waded triumphantly through a crush of photographers and lawmakers inside the committee room moments after the vote was canceled, said McGreevey's new discomfort with the bill was nothing more than a flip-flop, an attempt to protect himself politically before it was too late.

Schundler said he demonstrated leadership. McGreevey, he said, "caved," switching his decision based on political change in the wind.

"Jim McGreevey doesn't do the right thing unless he is forced to," Schundler said.

Although both candidates' positions on the arena are far more complicated, the developments Thursday gave Schundler the contrast he has sought since the campaign started.

He has cast himself as a maverick reformer, vowing to shake up the status quo by sticking to his convictions, even if they remain unpopular with his own party. His campaign, meanwhile, wants to paint McGreevey as a political puppet of special interests, who has no convictions.

Schundler indicated that despite the bill's dim prospects, he plans to use the issue as part of a sustained attack on McGreevey. Some political strategists and supporters believe it is the tactic that will help Schundler close the gap in the polls.

"It sets the scenario that [former Jersey City] Mayor Schundler wants, that McGreevey is truly the inside-the-beltway Trenton politician," said Assemblyman Guy Gregg, R-Morris, a Schundler supporter. "Schundler is out there speaking for the citizens, speaking for the taxpayers."

But for all his claims that the bill collapsed under the weight of public opposition over the project, Schundler's decision was also steeped in political calculation. By criticizing the plan, Schundler sided with Republican lawmakers from Bergen County, home to the largest bloc of Republican voters in the state and a must-win county in statewide elections.

Party officials also said his views were consistent with internal party polls suggesting most voters are not thrilled with the proposed arena.

Richard McGrath, a spokesman for McGreevey, said it was Schundler who has failed to show leadership on the issue. He said Schundler's call to first get voter approval on $190 million worth of bonds for the project amounts to nothing more than passing off a tough decision to voters.

"All he wants to do is to defer the decision to the taxpayers," McGrath said. "Governors have to have the fortitude to make decisions, and the willingness to act on them. Jim McGreevey supported the arena because it was a self-financed plan [that] didn't expose the taxpayers. But he had the fortitude to say no when it mushroomed into a billion-dollar pork-barrel project."

Despite that defense, at least one Democratic official remains nervous over the issue.

" 'Stop the Arena' could be the rallying cry that Bret Schundler needs to get back in this thing and save his campaign," the official said. "McGreevey is stuck with the arena because he can't really buck [Newark Mayor] Sharpe James. That plays right into Schundler's strategy that McGreevey is basically captive, and puppet, of the special interests."