June 6, 2005 Gloves come off in final GOP debate before primary
By Angela Delli Santi of AP
BRIDGEWATER COURIER NEWS
TRENTON -- When the seven Republican candidates for New Jersey governor were asked to wrap up the final televised debate Sunday by telling voters something new about themselves, Bret Schundler broke ranks with a bold prediction for Tuesday's primary.
"Folks, you don't know it, but I am going to win on Tuesday," the one-time Jersey City mayor said into the camera, near the end of an hour-long free-for-all that featured more interruptions than meaningful exchanges.
Schundler faces an uphill battle if he is to win the Republican nomination. With a recent poll showing him running a solid second in the crowded GOP field, he must shake off a multimillion dollar spending disadvantage from his chief rival, Mercer County business owner and former West Windsor Mayor Douglas Forrester, who has laid out more than $5 million on TV advertising.
He also must overcome the stigma of having lost badly to James E. McGreevey in the last gubernatorial election, though Forrester also lost decisively in his last statewide race, to Frank Lautenberg for U.S. Senate.
The GOP hopefuls are all vying for the right to become the David who faces Goliath -- U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine -- in the November election. Corzine, the probable Democratic nominee, faces only token opposition in the primary.
Sunday's debate likely was the last time the Republican contenders will all appear together before the primary, though all seven reportedly have pledged to attend a unity luncheon on Wednesday, hours after a winner is declared. That gathering, sponsored by the Republican State Committee, is to encourage the runners-up to put any ill will behind them and present a unified front against Corzine.
"The very next morning we will be united around a winner," said Todd Caliguire, a lawyer and business owner from Bergen County. "We will not make the same mistake we made four years ago when Bret Schundler was the nominee. It was absolutely wrong for our party not to step up and support him. It will not happen this time."
Paul DiGaetano, a state assemblyman from Bergen County and president of a construction company, agreed that unity was essential for the Republicans to have any shot against Corzine, a wealthy junior senator, who has more money and name recognition than any of the Republican challengers.
"We started this campaign with Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment of not speaking ill of another Republican," said DiGaetano. "It got away a little bit. But what bothers me is not what is being said, but what can be used by Jon Corzine. Tuesday, as soon as the polls close, we will be together because we are saying the same things."
Until then, though, the gloves are likely to stay off, especially among the two front-runners.
Those who tuned in to the debate a few minutes early saw paid, 30-second spots by Forrester and Schundler, each swiping at the other's plan to reduce property taxes. Each campaign has also dredged up the old mayoral record of the other, and both have insinuated in campaign literature and in public comments that the other has lied about his property tax plan and other issues.
WCBS TV's Marcia Kramer provoked the two further on Sunday when she asked them each to clarify, "which one of you is the liar and which is telling the truth?"
"I'm saying he has not been forthright in regard to his record," said Forrester.
"Doug has never said anything I've said about him is untrue," Schundler responded. "He's justified the fact that property taxes tripled in his short, four years. The local paper said his justification is untrue, and he hasn't denied that either."
"I deny all of those things now," Forrester said.
Morris County Freeholder John Murphy jumped into the fray to complain about the petty bickering between the two.
"People don't care about Doug's record as mayor a gazillion years ago," he said. "People are literally being driven from their houses. I've been traveling the state for the past three days. I've had people come up to me and say, 'I supported Bret, but I'm sick of the negative ads. I supported Doug, I'm sick of the negative ads."'
Turnout for Tuesday's Republican primary could be as low as 300,000 out of 885,000 registered Republicans, said Ingrid Reed, director of the Eagleton New Jersey Project at Rutgers University.
The two remaining candidates in the field are conservative Steve Lonegan, the mayor of Bogota in Bergen County, and Robert Schroeder, a military contractor and town councilman from Washington Township, Bergen County.
