Draft Bret Schundler for Governor in 2013

by: Bertin Lefkovic

Sat Jan 01, 2011 at 04:04:24 PM EST

When I think back to past gubernatorial primary elections, the only tangible difference that separated conservatives and moderates was their position on a woman's right to choose, but considering how unlikely it would be that a legislative majority could be found in Trenton to pass a bill banning abortion that would be signed into law by a Governor Schundlereventually find its way to the Supreme Court, which would have to take the monumental step of overturning Roe v. Wade for the law to actually go into effect, and the hardline stand that our "moderate" Governor has taken on the issue of funding family planning and women's health, I really have to wonder if there is a tangible difference between a Governor Christie and a Governor Schundler on this issue.

I am sure that there are other issues to consider, but my guess is that if we actually took the time to consider them, we would find that in reality, Christie is no more "moderate" than Schundler.  The only real difference is in their respective abilities to work with people with whom they vehemently disagree to accomplish common goals and objectives.  With respect to this, I think that there can be no doubt that between his service as mayor of Jersey City and Education Commissioner, Schundler has proven himself more than capable while Governor Christie has been a complete and total failure.

As irrelevant as a discussion like this might be for a progressive blog like New Jersey, where so few, if any, of us will be voting in the Republican gubernatorial primary in 2013, especially if there is a contested Democratic primary that year, but on the off chance that there are some Republicans and unreconstructed Loneganistas who are as disgruntled with Christie's leadership as Mulshine seems to be, looking for an alternative, and I am right in assuming that his vote in favor of marriage equality will forever disqualify Bill Baroni from winning a statewide Republican primary election, then I think that the GOP could do a lot worse than Bret Schundler.

Of course, they could do better, but for the same reason that the aforementioned Bill Baroni would probably have a very hard time winning a statewide Republican primary election, I think that any Republican whose ideology remotely resembles Christie Whitman's would never be able to make it past June to get to November, which is why I think that Mulshine Republicans should start working right now on a Draft Bret Schundler for Governor campaign.