Dear Editor:
I have been reviewing all the negative ads that the Democratic party put out against the Republican candidate for Governor, Bret Schundler, and I would like us for a moment to go back in time.
We were introduced to Bret Schundler when he was elected as Jersey City Mayor out of 19 other candidates to fill the unexpired term of then convicted Democratic leader and Mayor of Jersey City, Gerald McCann, after his indictment and was serving his sentence in jail.
Bret then won his two terms with a landslide victory in the City of Jersey City which is heavily populated with Democrats. The Dems ad goes on to say Bret is against abortion and will cut funding and take away a woman’s rights to choose. Bret is very religious, he is against abortion, this is his own religious belief, he cannot overturn the Supreme Court’s decision of Roe vs. Wade. No state has the power to do so. Bret will not cut any funding or try to take abortion rights from women in any shape or form.
Many tenants activists claim that Bret will take away affordable housing in the State of New Jersey if elected Governor. Again, not true according to the statistics, Jersey City has added 2,600 affordable housing units when Bret Schundler was mayor.
Mayor Schundler and I have had many disagreements in the past because as a tenant activist, I always wanted more for the tenants, but again if we go down memory lane, in 1996, it was the Democratic government in the City of Union City that took away many tenants’ rights and changed the City’s Rent Control Ordinance to make it pro-landlord destroying affordable housing in the City and making affordable housing very limited. Tenants in Union City have to pay Sewage Pass Along and Tax Pass Along charges; there is also Vacancy Decontrol or R.P.A.’s that makes rents unaffordable all over the City.
Since 1996 until present tenants of Union City have had many broken and false promises from one Democratic Mayor after another to lift or change some parts of the ordinance, such as Sewage to make the ordinance more tenant friendly and lift that burden from tenants. But until today it just has been a false Democratic promise.
The tenants of Jersey City do not have to worry about paying Sewage, Taxes or the Vacancy Decontrol. Something that the Republican Bret Schundler could have easily changed as Mayor of Jersey City if he wanted to but opted not to because it would have hurt too many working class families.
As a Democrat for Bret Schundler, and I have been a Democrat all my life, I am asking the Democratic organization to please stop the negative, false and attack ads against Bret Schundler.
The Republican organization and the Schundler’s campaign could easily retaliate and make their own ads against the Dem’s organization. They could use the latest scandal of exiled Janiszewski, the past County Executive of Hudson and the past Democratic chairman of Hudson County to their advantage. They could use the fact that in the eight years of the Democratic Clinton’s administration the doors were wide open with no supervision for too many terrorists to come to our land and attack us as we have seen on September 11.
The Republicans could let it be known that Clinton used Iraq as a tool and would only slightly bomb it to overshadow the Lewinsky scandal. The Republicans can use the fact the President George W. Bush is now the one who is cleaning the Democratic mess of Clinton, and how the Country suffered from lack of intelligence for the past eight years of Clinton.
The Republicans could use the fact that the Democratic Senator Torricelli who has been under a cloud of suspicion with many different allegations is now all of a sudden trying to be one of the good guys and worry about terrorists?
Many ways the Schundler’s campaign could retaliate and do many attack ads but knowing Bret Schundler, he always takes the high road. Bret is a uniter not a divider, Bret is a true leader. Bret is the Giuliani that New Jersey much needs at this time of crisis. Bret always sticks to the issues and does not want any personal praise.
As a Democrat for Schundler, I urge you to vote for Bret Schundler, November 6 if you want a better New Jersey. Vote for Bret Schundler, November 6 and put the people of New Jersey first.
Wafaa Mikhail
A Democrat for Schundler