Dear Editor:
I wonder what New Jersey voters would do if they had an opportunity to elect New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as New Jersey’s governor on November 6th?
While it won’t be possible to elect New York’s greatest mayor as our governor, it is possible to elect New Jersey’s greatest mayor in modern times to our highest office.
Consider the striking similarities between Rudy Giuliani and Bret Schundler. Giuliani ran without much Republican support in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 5 to 1, and scored an upset by a small margin. Schundler ran in a city where Democrats outnumbered Republicans by 11 to 1, and won his election by 2%. Four years later, voters rewarded Giuliani’s surprising success by a healthy voter margin, while Schundler’s record of achievements resulted in his reelection by the astounding plurality of 41% in Jersey City.
How did they do it? By doing what people said couldn’t be done, by putting the people ahead of the special interest groups that the likes of David Dinkins in New York City and Jim McGreevey in New Jersey serve in order to get elected and stay in office.
In New York, Giuliani got the squeegee bullies off the streets and the policemen back on, the vendors off the sidewalks in front of tax-paying stores, and the sanitation workers out of the coffee shops and back in the streets, where the dirt was. The result was a cleaner, safer, more prosperous city that once again became the envy of the world.
Across the river, Giuliani’s friend Schundler took the same approach. One hundred policemen were taken from their typewriters and sent back out on the street, where crime was reduced by 35 percent. Businesses that provided 30,000 jobs moved in, and property taxes went down 18 percent, while those in Woodbridge were going up 59 percent. Jersey City became the model for every city in the state – and for the state itself.
Of course, New York’s city council didn’t like the way Giuliani showed up their business – as – usual ineptitude, while in New Jersey the old-boy Republican network rigged the primary date to give Bob Franks every advantage. If only the voters were as stupid as politicians think we are.
Astute Republicans, Democrats, and Independents will recognize that the coming governor’s race offers New Jersey a rare opportunity – to elect a creative, independent leader in the mold of Rudy Giuliani, one who has used available money to make a disastrous city better than ever before, while lowering taxes. You can’t vote for Giuliani on November 6th, but if you want comparable results, the only choice is Rudy’s friend, Bret Schundler.
Edmund C. Burke