Suggestion to Schundler Campaign

Me | Today | Vanity

[kanaell]

Good day,

First of all, congratulations on an excellent performance at Rowan University on Thursday and furthermore, on cutting the gap even closer in the polls. I am in no doubt that the gap would be cut even further in the days to come. However, I would like to offer a proposal in utilizing the e-army during the last ten or so days to the election that, I believe, could be very useful. It would cost the campaign virtually no money and it would be very simple to implement (if you decide to do so).

Before I go on, to whom this may concern, I'd like to apologize if my posts appear to be lecturing, ordering or overbearing. In many cases, I state what you already know (and know that you know) as if you do not and in a way that may seem to question your experience or professionalism. Believe me, I do not intend to come across that way nor question your actions or the sheer competence and imaginativeness of the campaign team, which I greatly admire. The truth is that I am somewhat obsessive about making my point and somewhat linear in the way I write, which shows in my posts. Please excuse this in assessing this proposal. Thank you.

Many people are still unaware of Mr. Schundler and his true positions. Those just tuning in to the election would first of all get the left-wing media's distorted reports on them and form a negative first impression. The debates have assuaged that somewhat. However, considering current events, not as many as may be hoped may have been watching. As you already know, it is imperative that Mr. Schundler's ideas are presented undistorted to the people of New Jersey. On a level playing field, put before voters, Conservative ideas always win over Liberal ideas because Conservative ideas are better ... but with a largely Liberal media, the playing field is hardly level.

I strongly believe that an effective and inexpensive way to counter McGreevey and his allies in the media and further level the field would be to utilize the e-army and convert them into active campaign ground troops a bit earlier than the 6th and the 7th of November. From my communications with the vast majority of them, many are willing to do all they can to see Mr. Schundler take the Governor's oath of office and would be amenable to doing what I suggest you ask them, and me (I'll be in New Jersey from Pennsylvania from the 5th to the 8th to take part in getting out the vote and rallies) to do.

Although I believe it is very near certain that the Campaign already has much better plans for the e-army or for its time, and much as I would not like to be thought of as a back-seat campaign manager wanna-be, I feel that I should make yet another suggestion lest I find myself regretting never doing so in the months and weeks to come. I suggest writing a manifesto, calling it something like "Empowering New Jersey" and sending it as a MSWord / PDF or other such printable file to e-army members and asking them to print as many copies as they are able and hand them out to as many people as possible. Mr. McGreevey should not be referred to (by name at least) inside. On the front cover, also have the words, "Read this before you vote!!!" or something similar so the manifesto will be read more likely than not.

I am nothing if not fastidious (even if such fastidiousness is redundant) about detail and as such, begging your indulgence, I'd like to also share my ideas of what the manifesto should contain:

(1) A Welcome Message from Mr. Schundler.

(2) A message about the issues, what Mr. Schundler considers his primary concerns: On each of these issues Mr. Schundler should tell New Jerseyans what he is going to do and WHY he is going to do it, educating the voter about the issues in the process. Historical trends, facts and figures should be used as much as possible. I also suggest that Mr. Schundler should also address (and refute) the most repeated criticism (by Mr. McGreevey, the New York Times, the NJEA, etc.) of his plans on that issue. The issues, of course, being:
Taxes | Education | Car Insurance | Crime | Emergency Measures & State Security | Parkway Tolls | Healthcare (??) | State Spending

On Education please illustrate the failure of the current system (a monopoly system), and why more spending would not help. Please remember to cite the Milwaukee and Cleveland school choice programs and the Florida education tax credit program signed by Governor Jeb Bush a while back ... the results of these programs and their beneficial effects on their public school systems are very convincing. There are studies and numbers by the United States and New Jersey Departments of Education, Manhattan Institute, Mackinac Policy Center, the Heritage Foundation, etc.

On Crime, I have a program suggestion that may or may not be useful in conjunction with the New York COMPSTAT-like system that Mr. Schundler wants introduced to the State and its Municipalities. I call it the Mobile Station Concept, some friends of mine in the Philadelphia police force and I (former officer) came up with it. It is a system whereby a city would have a certain number of "mobile stations", two large semi-trucks with bare necessity office space and communication equipment in their (very large and ventilated) trailers and a certain number of attached on-foot and motorcycle cops. One of the trailers would have detention space. Mere police visibility has a destabilizing effect on crime as Mr. Guiliani and Mr. Schundler have proven as Mayors in their respective cities. The mobile stations would have the same effect. Whenever an area shows high crime rates, as well as an increased assignment of police to that area, a mobile station is also dispatched to park in that area to add more strength and a great deal more visibility to the police efforts.

On State Spending, I suggest proposing a "Results Act" that would always attach a time table of expected effects (milestones) on any new (or existing) state program? It would allow a maximum number of revisits (or time table resettings) by the Legislature when the milestones are not met and finally, the automatic death of the program should it fail to meet the milestones (after maximum number of revisits) or exceeds a certain price limit. If there is no revisit before a milestone date elapses and the program has not had the desired effect, the program dies. If it has and the Legislature agrees, the program continues. Taxes are an investment in the Government by the citizens. No one invests in a company that persistently engages in expensive policies with no measurable effect. The government must avoid such bad policies and establish a check on itself to make sure it does. This (a "Results Act") would help increase efficiency and cut State Spending by eliminating failing (and likely, expensive) programs.

(3) What about Abortion and Gun Control?: Mr. Schundler should make it clear to the the voters that these are not issues Mr. Schundler is seeking a mandate for but that as Governor, he would be bound by his oath of office to respect and honor the wishes of New Jersey citizens on both these issues irrespective of his personal views. Mr. Schundler should also urge voters to remember that hundreds of thousands of New Jersey citizens are pro-life due to religious and other personal reasons and that one's privately held religious beliefs should not be a reason to vote against them. However, this does not mean that he is completely lacking on public policy positions on these issues.

Partial Birth Abortion: Mr. Schundler, should express clearly his opposition to partial birth abortions. He should carefully explain how the procedure is actually done, emphasize that the baby is in 95+% of the cases, viable given adequate care, and that the procedure is NEVER necessary to save the life or physical health of the mother, as stated by the American Medical Association. He should make it clear that he would exclusively push (after priorities are met) for a bill that would precisely allow the procedure when the mother's life or physical health is in danger and bar the courts from defining health so broadly as to include mental and fiscal health. Mr. Schundler should also point out the bipartisan support such a ban has had in New Jersey and United States Legislatures and among New Jerseyans.

Legal Guardian / Parental Consent: Mr. Schundler should entirely explain this issue and why he supports it, stress its importance to parents, cite its support among New Jerseyans and the bipartisan support it has in the Legislature. If I may say so myself, it is a definite winner.

Gun Control: Mr. Schundler should clarify his position ... which I understood to be that he supports the current laws on guns in New Jersey but that if the New Jersey Legislature passes a law that would loosen the law against the carrying of concealed weapons, he will sign it. However, considering the political realities of the situation, would it not be better said that Mr. Schundler would sign or veto such a law after (of course) taking the views of New Jerseyans into consideration, i.e. through a referendum? Mr. Schundler may also stress that such a law would not originate or recieve any support (or opposition) from his administration.

(4) A biography of Mr. Schundler.

(5) Mr. Schundler's record in Jersey City and Press Praise of Mr. Schundler's Leadership as Mayor.

Even if this idea is not cosidered worth pursuing, thanks for taking the time to read it. If you do find it worth pursuing (no doubt there would be alterations), all well and good, and thanks for reading it as well. Either way, I would deeply appreciate a reply just saying that my message has been recieved.

Thanks again. Go Bret GO!!!

Yours Sincerely,
_______________

[kanaell]

Personally, I believe they should focus more on mailings as well as hand-outs ... the last time they sent video tapes to 250,000 independent voters. It was a brilliant move but I think the tapes should have been a lot more detailed. It would have made McGreevey's favorite shrieking response to any of Bret's positions (i.e. "That's extreme!!!") a lot less effective.

Perhaps Bret is thinking of doing a Jesse Ventura maneuver ... Come from behind and win it with Independents ...

[hchutch]

Nice - let me add two other things:

1. Will work with President Bush. 90% approval rating. Enough said.

2. Appearance on Howard Stern's show. This is called spreading the message to places where hte GOP doesn't normally go to.

Result: McGreevey DEFEATED

[Question_Assumptions]

I think he needs a commercial pointing out that Jim McGreevey is only talking bout Schundler in his ads, not himself. If you talk about yourself and the other guy, that's pointing out contrasts (as both agreed in the debates). When you talk only about the other guy (and are fast and free with the truth), that's character assassination. Why can't McGreevey talk about his record or what he will do? Simple. He has nothing to talk about.

[AZPubbie]

He can't go on Stern. Stern will never endorse him because Stern is pro-abortion.

[kanaell]

I also think that not mentioning McGreevey (in the "manifesto") is not necessarily a good idea. I think that at the end, there should be some mention of McGreevey and then a clear and complete refutation of every single McGreevey ad. And then, at the end of the refutations section/page, your point about how McGreevey's ads are all about Schundler should be pointed out to voters; "Why doesn't Jim McGreevey talk about his plans and his record?"

And I also think that the manifesto should be sent to voters just about 5 days to the election, cutting it really fine so McGreevey has to really scramble to respond. The media would help him but I doubt they'd succeed. I once saw an adwatch article from the New York Slimes that went somewhat like this;

Schundler Ad/Press Release: ... Violent crime was cut by X% in Jersey City while violent crime in Woodbridge went up by Y% ...

New York Slimes: ... Violent crime went up by Y% in Woodbridge but violent crime went down by X% in Jersey City ... it is not certain whether this was due to Mayor Schunder's policies or due to the fact that violent crime went down throughout the entire country in that same time period ...

As you can see, they put the "but" as if they were actually countering the Schundler ad. I'm sure it must have hurt like hell for them to have to tell the truth that violent crime did go down in Jersey City, but it's obvious they had no choice. But they still valiantly tried to fudge the issue by trying to attribute the violent crime drop to some "national trend" they probably think was caused by Clinton's "perfect policies". And of course, they didn't see anything odd with the fact that this "national trend" skipped Woodbridge.

[kanaell]

bumpitty bump

[BillyBoy]

Maybe he can do the Mancow show. Mancow Muller is a "conservative shock-jock" (yes, sounds like a condiction, but true nevertheless). Then again, I don't think anyone outside the midwest has a clue who Mancow is...