(MOUNTAINSIDE, NJ) -- Schundler for Governor communications director Bill Pascoe -- responding to a reported suggestion that the Schundler campaign is "disappointed" by the results of a Quinnipiac University poll released earlier today -- tonight issued the following statement:

"Regarding the reported suggestion that the Schundler campaign must be "disappointed" by today's Quinnipiac University poll, I respectfully disagree.

"Let's review: Since late January, Quinnipiac University has released three polls measuring public opinion in the ongoing gubernatorial campaign. Since that time, two things of note have happened, polling-wise: 1) Bret Schundler has held fast to a tie with Douglas Forrester, despite the Forrester campaign's having spent millions of dollars on paid communications on broadcast TV, cable TV, radio, direct mail, flags, pennants, placards, yard signs, tee-shirts, baseball caps, and anything else that could possibly have the Forrester logo emblazoned on it; and 2) Bret Schundler has consistently narrowed the gap between himself and the presumptive Democratic nominee in trial heat head-to-head match-ups -- again, despite the fact that the Schundler campaign has yet to communicate a message via paid media to a broader audience.

"Why in the world, then, would we be "disappointed"?

"Consider: four years ago this week, Donald DiFrancesco withdrew from the GOP gubernatorial primary, and Bob Franks entered the campaign as Mr. DiFrancesco's Establishment Republican replacement candidate. That very night, the Schundler campaign went into the field with a survey, to see what we were up against. The results were, to borrow a phrase, "disappointing" -- we found ourselves down by a margin of 46-22 percent, with just nine weeks to go before the primary election. But we all know how that turned out.

"So being tied with the Establishment Republican candidate with six weeks to go isn"t cause at Schundler headquarters for "disappointment" -- it is, instead, cause for encouragement: Encouragement at the knowledge that we have a candidate who can withstand an onslaught of paid media; encouragement that our candidate's message of permanent and dramatic property tax reductions is clearly more compelling than our principal opponent's "message" of the month/week/day (the "if it's Thursday, it must be the Newark Arena" strategy -- made especially amusing, to use the case in point, given Mr. Forrester's deafening silence on the issue four years ago, when Bret Schundler stood virtually alone against the Trenton Establishment in opposing that proposed massive giveaway of taxpayer dollars, and, virtually alone, turned the tide and forced the Trenton Establishment to back down); encouragement that despite NOT running broadcast advertising of any kind, we continue to gain against our likely general election opponent.

"At the risk of again being misunderstood (a fault for which I take full responsibility) . . . what's not to like?"

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