Whatever Happened To Bret Schundler?

In the mid-1990s, Schundler seemed like the great conservative hope of New Jersey, as the mayor of the otherwise industrial blue bastion of Jersey City. Then, after losing the bid for the governorship of New Jersey in 2001, he seemed to fade into the background a bit.

…Only to reemerge as today as incoming GOP Gov. Chris Christie’s Commissioner of Education:

Via Kim Priestap on Twitter. NJ Governor-elect, Republican Chris Christie announced his selection for Commissioner of Education. Previously, before Bret Schundler even took office as Jersey City Mayor, the NEA named him “Public Enemy Number One“. Heh! Guess they can’t really move him up a spot from there, now can they. This ought to be fun to watch.

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

“He’s done it” refers to his decision, announced at a Wednesday afternoon press conference, to appoint former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler as his Commissioner of Education.

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 inJersey City, the National Education Association had labeled him “Public Enemy Number One.”