June 6, 2005 Final GOP debate erupts into shoutfest
By Jeff Whelan
STAR LEDGER
Looser television format fails to firm up positions of the seven contenders
The seven Republican candidates for governor squared off in their final debate yesterday, shouting over each other about property taxes and the negative tone of the primary in a raucous, freewheeling affair televised live on WCBS.
In an effort to break the candidates away from the stock answers they used during five previous televised debates, organizers set a looser format. There were no time limits for responses and the rivals had the opportunity to jump into the fray at will.
But in a race with low voter interest, the final encounter before tomorrow's election illustrated the candidates' desperation to be heard in an exceptionally crowded field. Much of the hour-long broadcast turned into a free-for-all and, at one point, left the moderator pleading for order.
"Our viewers would pray that you would just give us one answer at a time," said Jim Rosenfield, an anchor for WCBS, which sponsored the event along with the New York Times.
More often than not, that plea went ignored.
"Doug, you do a terrific job of talking without ever answering a question," Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan said to Doug Forrester, the wealthy businessman who is leading in public opinion polls.
"It's easier to talk if I'm not being interrupted by you, Steve," Forrester shot back.
After the debate, former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler, Forrester's biggest rival, said, "A lot of people are going to watch this and say, 'What a circus.'"
Even the pre-game show on the station was bare-knuckled, with Schundler and Forrester, a former West Windsor mayor, running television ads assailing each other's records.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine, the presumptive Democratic nominee who faces only token opposition in the primary, broadcast a feel-good ad promoting himself.
Despite the acrimony, most of the GOP candidates yesterday agreed on many of the issues. They all, for example, said they oppose forcing towns to regionalize to cut property taxes. And they all said they would legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Forrester has been pulling away in public opinion polls in recent days, but Schundler promises an intense get-out-the-vote effort. The rest of the pack, far behind in the polls, includes Lonegan, Morris County Freeholder John Murphy, businessman Bob Schroeder, Assemblyman Paul DiGaetano (R-Essex) and former Bergen County Freeholder Todd Caliguire.
Much of the conflict in yesterday's debate centered on Forrester and Schundler's attack ads.
At one point, Forrester confronted Schundler about a mailer that Schundler recently sent to 90,000 Republicans. The mailer accuses Forrester of "slandering" Schundler, and says, "Forrester could have used his wealth to do good instead of evil" by backing Schundler's property tax plan.
"That is just not the kind of thing you can do and expect to be taken seriously when you are running for governor," Forrester said, taking issue with the use of the word "evil."
Schundler shot back that the line was meant to be a light-hearted take on a line from the old "Superman" television series. He said he feared Forrester wouldn't get the joke and asked his printer to change the piece, but was told it was too late.
At one point during Schundler's explanation, Forrester stuck his tongue out in disbelief.
After the debate, Schundler said of the mailer, "The bottom line is, I do regret it. But it saddens me that Doug has never once expressed any regret for outright slandering me."
Schundler has taken issue with a Forrester television ad that calls Schundler one of the biggest "abusers" of pay-to-play, the practice of awarding campaign contributors with government contracts. Forrester cites an independent report as his source, but the report makes no such charge.
Forrester said after the debate that that charge was legitimate because the report did illustrate how Schundler's campaign contributors won government contracts in Jersey City. He also said Schundler's most recent mailer, which he dubbed "vicious," raised questions about whether his chief rival had the temperament to be governor.
"This crystallizes the theme of his campaign that it's Bret against the world," Forrester said. "We should be able to disagree on public policy issues without being accused of moral failure."
As Schundler and Forrester parried over their mayoral records during the debate, other candidates also chimed in to lament the tenor of the campaign.
"It's sickening," Murphy said. "People don't care about what happened in 1982."
Caliguire said the campaign was too negative.
"If airlines competed the way politicians compete," Caliguire said, "nobody would get on an airplane."
