Gubernatorial candidates trade barbs over top GOP fundraiser

by Enid Weiss
NJJN Bureau Chief/Trenton

Several days after a May 17 televised debate among seven candidates vying for the Republican spot in the governor’s race, frontrunners Bret Schundler and Douglas Forrester continued to trade barbs involving top GOP fundraiser Lewis Eisenberg.

By the time the dust settled, Schundler called Eisenberg, a former chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey who has endorsed Forrester, and apologized for mistakenly asserting that Eisenberg “was a Jim McGreevey appointee to the Port Authority.”

Eisenberg noted Schundler’s public apology and replied, “I accept.”

“I was surprised to hear my name,” Eisenberg, a member of the board of directors of the Republican Jewish Coalition, told NJ Jewish News.

The dustup was sparked by Schundler’s remarks during the television debate on NJN, when the former Jersey City mayor boasted of his record of fighting for smaller, less expensive government and mentioned his fight against a taxpayer-funded sports arena in Newark.

“I led the fight and successfully blocked the legislature from acting on the Newark Arena proposal,” Schundler said. “And then you saw Jim McGreevey bypass getting a vote from the legislature, and get it done through his appointees on the Port Authority, which included amongst others Lew Eisenberg, who supports Doug Forrester.”

But Eisenberg headed the authority from 1995 to 2001, before the Democrat McGreevey’s term as governor.

What Eisenberg — a chairman of President George W. Bush’s New Jersey re-election campaign and former finance chairman of the Republican National Committee — did do was work to broker deals with a holding company — YankeeNets — organized to negotiate a deal to keep the Devils and Nets playing in a New Jersey stadium, a role he stepped into at the request of then acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco.

“The fact is, I served through 9/11 and left the Port Authority in January 2002. I had nothing to do with the Port Authority’s funding of the Newark Arena,” Eisenberg said in a statement issued by the Forrester campaign on May 18. He later told NJJN “the implication I helped move money from the Port Authority [to Newark for arena funding] is totally false.”

Later in 2002 the Port Authority renegotiated its lease of Newark’s seaports, while city and state officials had indicated they’d use those funds to pay for the arena. The arena plan, while backed by McGreevey, was not approved by the legislature and fell apart as voters failed to get on board, McGreevey was faced with the state’s looming debt and several political scandals, and the sports teams involved were sold to new owners.

Immediately following the debate, Schundler realized his mistake, Schundler’s communications director Bill Pascoe told NJJN from the campaign’s Mountainside headquarters. Schundler called Eisenberg to apologize for the mistakenly assertion.

Schundler expanded on why he brought up Eisenberg’s name in an e-mailed statement: “I want to point out that Doug Forrester was not there, and I think it was because of a relationship with Lew Eisenberg, who was supporting the project. He’s now talking about the Newark Arena after the money has already been given to it and the deal is done. [Forrester] was not there while the barn doors could have been closed, you know, and it could have done some good.”

The NJN debate was the first televised forum since Eisenberg came out in support of Forrester, a businessman and former West Windsor mayor whose previous run for the United States Senate ended in a loss to Frank Lautenberg.

“Bret Schundler called me many times to ask for my support for his candidacy as governor,” Eisenberg said in a statement. “Now, not long after I told him I was endorsing Doug Forrester, he has turned around and engaged in a false political attack. I am disappointed in Bret Schundler and proud to be supporting Doug Forrester for governor.”

Eisenberg told NJJN he spoke to Schundler several days before the debate to let the Schundler know he would be endorsing Forrester.

“The bottom line is I’m supporting Doug Forrester because I think his property tax reduction plan is better and because of his business experience,” Eisenberg said. “I was sad and disappointed in Bret….When the state is faced with a fiscal crisis and political corruption is at an unheard of level, to have a candidate who engages in a negative personal attack is disappointing.”

But Schundler’s mistake wasn’t a personal attack, Pascoe said.

“He wasn’t attacking Lew, he was attacking Doug Forrester,” Pascoe said. “A number of things Doug Forrester has explained [during the debate and since then] does not match truth….West Windsor saw massive spending including a one-year budget increase of $1.2 million” when Forrester was mayor.

Enid Weiss can be reached at enid@njjewishnews.com.