Man Versus Machine

Former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler has played a successful David to New Jersey's political machine Goliath for years. But there's one foe that always got the best of him: the teacher's union. Maybe that's why in his second run for the governorship, he's no longer talking up school choice, his signature issue for years. Instead, his current campaign for the GOP nomination is focused on ethics and property taxes, making him sound a lot like his Republican rival, Doug Forrester. Even the likely Democratic nominee, Jon Corzine, is promoting similar stances.

Mr. Schundler, whose career to this point consisted of surviving repeated attacks from New Jersey's entrenched political machines, seems to have decided the new lesson is: blend in and you won't get hurt.

In 1992, the former Wall Street money manager ran for mayor in a town known for the modest governance style of Frank "I am the law" Hague, who ran Jersey City for a generation. Though the city was 94% Democratic, voters had tired of high taxes, a corrupt government that festered under party bosses, and schools where "ain't" was the first word on the vocabulary list. Mr. Schundler ran on a platform of school choice and economic revival and won with 68% of the vote. He was twice re-elected by overwhelming margins. His policy successes included cutting taxes, lowering crime, increasing the number of cops on the street and privatizing the city water works.

Education reform, however, remained elusive. Republicans controlled the legislature and the governor's mansion, and a strong majority of state residents backed vouchers, but Mr. Schundler's voucher plan died when it landed in Trenton. The state teacher's union even threatened to boycott Pepsi after the soft-drink company expressed interest in underwriting a scholarship program for Jersey City kids.

Mr. Schundler ran for governor four years ago and again faced a formidable machine foe, but this time promoted by his own party. Nonetheless, his voucher platform appealed to primary voters and he won the nomination. In the general election, however, the state teachers union and other Democratic interest groups pulled out all the stops to portray him as a dangerous "right winger" and Democrat Jim McGreevey won with a handy 14-point margin.

This year, Mr. Schundler faces an even steeper uphill climb against the popular Mr. Corzine, who spent $60 million of his own money to win his U.S. Senate seat and is expected to spend just as heavily in pursuit of the governorship. Mr. Schundler has evidently decided that Mr. Corzine is challenge enough, and that he doesn't need the additional hassle of provoking the state teachers union. Thus he no longer pushes the school choice agenda that largely built his political career, though the idea has not lost its popularity with voters.