Politics/Rainbow Republican
Norquist, Grover G.
S ince Bill Clinton's election, the Republican Party has defeated two sitting Democratic senators, won twenty-five of thirty-nine state legislative races, and elected the first Republican mayor of...
...In fact, as was widely discussed in party circles at the time, the Republicans would have kept control of the Senate if they had won only 20 percent of the black vote in 1986...
...Republican candidates can and must be their own Radio Liberty,speaking over, under, and around the establishment leaders to reach black voters...
...6) Commit to choice in education...
...Bush damaged himself and the Republican Party by undermining the trust voters had on the tax issue," Schundler notes...
...The Reverend R.L...
...Jersey City voters, Williams explained, were "tired of the old leadership...
...Schundler calls its potential for "empowering black parents and communities as great as that of the civil rights movement of the 1960s...
...5) As with all voters, establish confidence and trust with the black voter...
...Although he's heard from numerous conservatives, the victorious Schundler hasn't heard from the Ripon Society, that terminal moraine of liberal Republicanism...
...Jesse has been losing market share," Schundler observes...
...Black "leaders" credentialed by liberal Democratic interest groups represent black voters about as authentically as Erich Honecker embodied the hopes and aspirations of the East German working class...
...This raised $44 million...
...Schundler would not allow Jackson's scare tactics to keep him from highlighting crime as a key issue...
...As a result, Schundler says, "history is not a guide to the future...
...His first act as mayor last fall was to reject the city council's proposed tax increase...
...S ince Bill Clinton's election, the Republican Party has defeated two sitting Democratic senators, won twenty-five of thirty-nine state legislative races, and elected the first Republican mayor of Los Angeles since 1961...
...So, too, his call for requiring prison inmates to work, not to mention welfare recipients...
...3) Expect to be called racist...
...But neither Jackson nor the local nomenklatura could deliver the black vote in Jersey City...
...2) Speak directly to black voters—not through so-called black leaders...
...Moving left and flip-flopping on issues is especially damaging with black voters who are being introduced to Republican candidates for the first time...
...That increase came from moving cops from behind desks and eliminating such practices as having two police officers spend their day taking mail between police stations...
...Schundler is convinced that the black support he received was no fluke but a reflection of factors present in all machine-dominated cities...
...Schundler argues that the failure of the liberal welfare state and its policy of entitlement has created a "time of great desperation" in cities and that Republicans can now compete in "historically hostile districts...
...A national study in June 1992 by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies found that 33 percent of blacks identify themselves as conservative, 30percent as moderate,, and 28 percent as liberal...
...Against eighteen other candidates, Schundler won with 16 percent of the vote...
...Schundler, a Republican only since 1991, was initially elected in a special election last November 3, after the conviction of the previous mayor on corruption charges...
...Having promised last fall to oppose any tax hikes, cut property taxes, and increase the percentage of cops on the beat, he did all three well before the runoff...
...But the most heartening sign of the health and smarts of today's post-Bush Republican Party has been the swiftness with which party leaders have focused "like a laser" on the lessons presented by the election last May of 34-year-old Bret Schundler for a full term as mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey...
...The city payroll was cut by 200 staffers through attrition...
...Schundler has won a commitment from the Republican-dominated New Jersey legislatureand from Republican gubernatorial candidate Christie Whitman to pass Jersey City–specific legislation to allow Jersey City to use some of the $6,600 in state aid per student as a voucher for private and religious schools...
...In a climate of trust, Jesse Jackson's name-calling didn't stand a chance...
...Given that the study also found that only 8 percent of blacks identify themselves as Republicans, that 33-percent figure gives Republican candidates a huge target of opportunity...
...The myth peddled by liberal Republicans for decades, that Republicans must shift left to win black votes can finally be put to rest...
...If the Republican Party can find a way to win 40 percent of the black vote nationally, then the Democrats might as well stay home on election day...
...Schundler campaigned in all neighborhoods in favor of his package of putting prisoners to work for their upkeep, welfare work requirements, lower taxes, more police patrols, and school vouchers...
...The Schundler campaign offers six lessons to Republican candidates: (1) To win the votes of black Americans you have to ask for them...
...W bile the defeat of a corrupt Democratic Party machine is 'noteworthy, it has gone largely unreported that Schundler carried more than 40 percent of the black vote, a stunning development for a Republican...
...171...
...Not a single black elected official would endorse Schundler...
...Better than Milton Friedman or Hayek, they understand from first-hand experience over too many years that if you give politicians power they will take your tax dollars and give it to their friends...
...Republicans sometimes forget how important this issue is to lower-income voters...
...Schundler didn't squander the window of opportunity open to him before the May runoff...
...Richard Nixon used the issues of crime and national defense to bring the Democratic Southern states solidly into the Republican fold...
...But crying wolf wears thin over time...
...Ronald Reagan's message that 'government is not the solution, it is the problem' is self-evident to many voters stuck in corrupt cities...
...His demand that all criminals—even youthful offenders—receive some punishment proved very popular with black voters...
...Schundler's victory over the machine was complete—his entire slate of nine city councilmen was elected with him...
...He sees no end in opportunities for candidates campaigning on platforms of low taxes, seriousness about crime, and educational choice in cities across America...
...Why give them more...
...Hepromised to cut his mayor's salary by $15,000 (25 percent), put more police on the streets, cut property taxes, expand the city's enterprise zone (where sales taxes are halved), push for vouchers for private and religious schools, and to root out endemic corruption...
...These developments bring joy to the hearts of Republican strategists looking toward 1996, as they should...
...Schundler's success charts a strategy for Republican victories in the previous Democratic strongholds of the inner city...
...Once I made it clear that I wouldn't raise taxes, it made everything else easier," Schundler says...
...Governed by Democrats since 1917, this is the city where fabled boss Frank Hague (1917-1949) accurately announced "I am the law...
...Schundler spoke at black churches and campaigned heavily in predominantly black public housing projects such as Marion Gardens, where he received a majority of votes...
...The proportion of police walking a beat went from 32 percent to 64 percent...
...Because the Democratic Party remains controlled by the labor unions, Schundler adds, it "is trapped into being the institutional enemy of this inevitable revolution...
...Schundler won 68 percent of the vote in a city that defined big-city machine corruption, and where only 6 percent of voters are registered Republicans...
...The Democratic National Committee spent $35,000 to bring Jesse Jackson to town for a two-day attack on Schundler a week before the May election...
...Instead, he used his expertise as a former Wall Street financial manager to bundle the tax liens owed to the city and sell this highly collateralized asset to investors...
...Too often, traditional campaign consultants redline black districts, assuming there are no Republican votes to be had...
...Newt Gingrich and Jack Kemp have already debriefed Schundler—and Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour has invited Schundler to address the entire Republican National Committee—about the secret of his success with black and other minority voters...
...Success here would radically alter the correlation of forces in American politics, not only in urban areas, but in House and Senate races as well...
...I unequivocally think our campaign is a model for others," he says...
...Jersey City is 65- percent minority: 41 percent of its citizens are non-English speakers at home, 25 percent were born overseas, and 14 percent immigrated to America within the last ten years...
...A Jersey City poll produced by Fabrizio, McLaughlin and Associates found that "black voters were every bit as concerned about fighting crime and drugs as white voters," and "black voters were more likely to support cutting the sales tax, school choice and requiring prison inmates to work in jail to pay their own cost...
...No one needs to tell the black voters of Jersey City that they shouldn't trust politicians with their lives and their money...
...Ripon's repeated demand that the party move left to attract black votes now stands unmasked as a desire to promote liberalism, not black participation in the GOP...
...4) Campaign on a unified message—not on separate messages that balkanize the electorate...
...Williams, Jersey City's deputy mayor, explains that Jackson's credibility has fallen sharply since 1985...
...Clinton won 43 percent of the national vote, after campaigning as a "new Democrat," but he has since continued to campaign as a more expensive version of Mondale and a culturally more extreme Dukakis...
...How'd he pull it off...
...Schundler won 75 percent of the Hispanic vote and 85 percent of the Asian vote...
...Jesse Jackson went so far as to call a vote for Bret Schundler a vote for "the values of the Union of South Africa...
...In countless races nationwide, conservatives have been intimidated by cries of racism into backing away from discussions of crime and welfare reform that would have won them serious support among black voters...
...T o their credit, Republicans from Washington to Los Angeles are asking Bret Schundler about his success in winning minority voters...
Vol. 26 • September 1993 • No. 9
