In the Right

In making the appointment, it's clear, Christie has decided to teach the teachers' union a thing or two about politics.

Schundler -- who was the first Republican elected Mayor of Jersey City in 75 years, and who served in that position from 1992-2001 -- was, through the course of his two-plus terms in office, a noted proponent of school choice.

His determination to empower parents with more control over their own children's education was so strong that within a year of his taking power in Jersey City, the National Education Association had labeled him "Public Enemy Number One."

In the gubernatorial campaign of 2001, Schundler made his school choice agenda central to his campaign platform. Eschewing the kind of traditional GOP campaign advice that says it's a waste of time and resources to campaign in the inner cities, he insisted on taking his education reform message right into the poorest urban areas of the state.

He accepted an invitation to speak to the annual convention of the New Jersey Education Association -- at 170,000 strong then (and 200,000 strong now), the most powerful single special interest group in the Garden State. Given the union's opposition to merit pay, school choice, and other empowerment agenda reforms, it was an interesting exchange.

Schundler told them some uncomfortable truths. Unlike his two opponents at the time -- Democrat Jim McGreevey, and Republican Acting Governor Don DiFrancesco -- he didn't try to woo them. Instead, he explained why he thought they were wrong. He wanted to reform New Jersey education by introducing more competition into the system -- and to do that, he said, he wanted to reform the state's tax code to allow for greater deductibility of charitable contributions for scholarship foundations that would use their money to pay for private or parochial school tuition for children in distressed urban areas.

I've never forgotten the response from the teachers' union's leader, which was something along the lines of, "I congratulate Mayor Schundler for having the courage to come here. And I congratulate our teachers for not throwing their knives and forks at him."

Two days after winning the primary election, Schundler -- joined by Jack Kemp and Milt Campbell (the African-American former Olympic decathlon champion who was that year running as a GOP candidate for the state senate) -- took a bus load of reporters with him into Camden, to signal that he wasn't ceding a single vote, and that he would make McGreevey work to protect his base. School choice was high on the agenda that day.

But things don't always work out the way you plan, and McGreevey was able to turn the tables on Schundler on the education issue. When Schundler talked about reforms that would allow taxpayers to save $600 million in property taxes, McGreevey said that meant Schundler "wanted to take $600 million out of the public schools." It wasn't true, but it was loud, and it was repeated endlessly.

In fact, contrary to the conventional wisdom about that race, Schundler didn't lose because he was "too conservative" for New Jersey; he lost that year's race for governor on the education issue -- McGreevey spent tens of millions of dollars on TV ads, most of which drove his inaccurate portrayal of the Schundler proposal. Exit polls published the day after the election revealed just how much McGreevey's ads hurt -- education was the third most important issue in the election, and among the 16 percent of the electorate who listed it as their top issue, McGreevey beat Schundler by a margin of 71-29 percent. In all my years doing campaigns, I've never seen a single issue cut that strongly for one candidate against another.

But that was eight years ago, and nothing has happened to make urban education in New Jersey any better. In fact, by many measures, the problem has gotten worse.

In fact, it's gotten so bad that key traditional Democratic allies -- including urban lawmakers, ministers, and community leaders -- have broken with the teachers' union to join with conservatives to push for a pilot program that will allow vouchers in the eight cities in the state that have the worst schools. The pilot program would allow businesses to direct a portion of their state taxes to scholarships that needy students could use to pay for private or parochial school tuition.

If that pilot program sounds familiar, it should -- it's remarkably similar to what Schundler was proposing as his campaign's centerpiece back in 2001. But unlike Schundler's proposal -- which would not have diverted a single dime in state funding -- by allowing businesses to direct a portion of their state taxes to the scholarships, this pilot program actually would move state taxpayer dollars.

In this June 2009 New York Times piece, some of these traditional Democratic allies who've now broken with the teachers' union are identified: Newark Mayor Cory Booker; Council of Black Ministers chief Rev. Reginald Jackson; Assemblyman Joe Cryan, the state Democratic Party chairman; state Sen. Ray Lesniak, a north Jersey Democratic power broker; George Norcross, a south Jersey Democratic power broker; and Martin Perez, founder of the Latino Leadership Alliance.

Christie's decision to appoint Schundler confirms the faith that many New Jersey conservatives had in Christie during the course of the long campaign -- and confounds conservative critics for whom Christie could (and will) never be conservative enough.

And it puts New Jersey Education Association leaders on the spot -- do they really want to pick a fight with a brand new governor over a cabinet appointee, knowing that the issue that makes the appointee objectionable to them, school choice, is an issue on which they're clearly on the losing side? Especially when picking a fight with the governor means they'd be picking a fight with their traditional allies -- like the Rev. Reginald Jackson, who, Wednesday afternoon, praised the Schundler nomination?

Ideas have consequences. And so do elections. If New Jersey Education Association leaders have not yet learned that lesson, Chris Christie is about to teach them.

DISCLAIMER: CQPolitics says when I write about the politicians in my past, I have to turn the cards face up. I once worked a campaign against both Don DiFrancesco and Jim McGreevey.

Follow me on Twitter!