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In His Zeal to Attack Teachers Unions, NJ Governor Loses Out on $400 Million, Fires Ed Commisioner

By The Pullins Group LLC

I'll admit to being a little biased here.  I've met Bret Schundler a few times and supported some of his political efforts.  He's one of those few rare conservative Republicans who can reach across the aisle and build common ground with the Democrats, especially on education issues.  That's usually a necessity when you live and work in a state like New Jersey, dominated by Democrats and Unions.

This morning NJ Governor Chris Christie fired Schundler after accusing him of lying about what happened in an interview with the Federal Race To the Top awards panel.  Apparently, there was a clerical error made in the lengthy application which cost NJ 4.8 points.  As a result, NJ lost out to Ohio by three points for funding.

But here's the real story on why this mistake came about:

Bret Schundler and the New Jersey Teachers Association had worked out a compromise on several key points.  As a result of that compromise, the union endorsed the proposal, a key requirement of the Obama administration.  But when Christie heard about this compromise, he threw a hissy fit, took Schundler to the woodshed and forced his staff to rewrite the 1,000 page application over a weekend. 

The original application had the correct numbers, the new application did not. Governor Christie was in such a time crunch that only one person was used to proofread the voluminous application. In fact, because of the last minute change, a staffer had to drive the application to Washington, DC.

The problem with some of these hard charging GOP politicians is that they don't know when its time to stop campaigning and start governing.  I predict this will be just the first of many Chris Christie gaffes.

Full post as published by The Pullins Report on August 27, 2010 (boomark / email).