Oh Lord, Sires was a republican? I have it on good authority that the man is as dumb as a box of rocks! I guess we were well rid of him.
And you are 100% correct about Schundler, the party completely betrayed him. That was all abortion uber alles stuff, disgusting. Also, I have heard there was a lot of resistance to vouchers.
But, he could have won, if he had had support and you are right that led to McGreevey and all that stuff.
I work in a law firm and it was pretty amusing the day McGreevy came out of the closet. 1/2 the people were completely shocked, to the other half it was old news.
I think The Onion had the best take on it. Their headline read:
TEARFUL HOMOSEXUAL ADMITS TO BEING GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY.
I saved that one.
Going back to Schundler, he is so typical of what happens when we have exceptional figures within our party, they often have to be "destroyed" for the threat they pose to the establishment. Truth be told, I think there are way too many rich country-clubber White Socialist bigots in the GOP that are terrified at the prospect of other Republicans that have the power to lead or appeal to other ethnic groups on the basis of Conservatism and increase their presence in the party. Sure, they can tolerate a few tokens (Sires under Kean), but a mass migration of thousands of brown-skinned people into the GOP whom they might actually have to fraternize with in positions of power ? Oh, the horror !
I think people forget how close McGreevey came to knocking off Whitman after just a single term (the myth that she was popular in the state is just that - she won in '93 solely because ANYONE who ran against Florio would've won, but she was about the worst person we could've ever put up, an elitist liberal snob and big gubmint statist). She didn't almost lose because McGreevey was so appealing, but because she was so viscerally disliked by so many Republicans. Like more than a few other so-called "Republicans", I think she was (is) nothing more than a closeted Democrat, one who could maximize damage to the GOP from within (Gov. William Weld of MA was another, Ah-nold out in CA -- and unfortunately, so is the present nominee for President, a big reason I've so vociferously opposed his candidacy for more than 6 years running).