Christie camp criticizes Lonegan over signature challenges

By Matt Friedman | April 17th, 2009 - 9:40am
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Without mentioning gubernatorial rival Steve Lonegan by name, the Chris Christie campaign chastised him for removing three lesser-known Republican candidates from the primary ballot.  

Lonegan successfully challenged the petition signatures of Franklin Township Mayor Brian Levine, inventor David Brown and corrections officer Christian Keller.

“They worked hard, brought diverse ideas to the table and added to the debate over the last few months,” said Christie Campaign Manager Bill Stepien.  “It's a shame that some saw fit to spend taxpayer dollars trying to knock good candidates off of the ballot.”

Lonegan and Christie both accept matching funds from the state, which none of the other Republican candidates qualified for.  

Unless Levine and Brown are successful in their appeals, the Republican gubernatorial primary field will be narrowed down to just three candidates: Christie, Lonegan and Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham).   

Since Christie is the presumed frontrunner, the Loneagn campaign benefits by having as few candidates on the ballot as possible.

Lonegan strategist Rick Shaftan said that his campiagn challenged the many of the other candidates' petition signatures because there were many from registered Democrats, independents, third parties and people who were not registered to vote.

"The point is to nominate a Republican candidate you have to have signatures from 1,000 people eligible to vote in the Republican primary," said Shaftan  "If Chris thinks that we shouldn't have a signature requirement at all, that's a different conversation, and if he thinks the rules should be so open, shouldn't he just get rid of his county organization columns?"

 

Give me a break

“It's a shame that some saw fit to spend taxpayer dollars trying to knock good candidates off of the ballot.”

How about the shame of Christie accepting $2,354,472 of taxpayer money for his campaign?

If Steve Lonegan had under 2,000 signatures every Christie flunky up and down the state would have been poring over them trying to challenge.

Could you be more of a phony please.

 

PS - Great job on the Coniglio case, looks like a real slam dunk to me.

But Its OK

I am a Christie Supporter, but it seems hypocritical for him to critize Lonegan for challenging signatures, when the Regular Republican Organizations that are supporting him are challenging signatures of Lonegan Assembly candidates.

“They worked hard [at

“They worked hard [at making me look good by comparison], brought diverse ideas to the table [for me to "borrow"] and added to the [carefully orchestrated] debate over the last few months,”

fix'd

CC = Paunce

Has his thugs change conventions to screenings and he is complaining about fairness.

Are you kidding me?

Are you kidding me?

This coming from the campaign who refuses to debate Steve Lonegan and refuses daily to engage Republican voters in any kind of Q & A forum.

This coming from a campaign that worked hand in hand with a party hack from the NJ GOP Senate staffer about the 1st ELEC Lonegan probe.

This from a campaign who has County Chairman challenging the petitions of candidates running on Lonegan's slate.

What a disgraceful showing of hypocrisy and arrogance by these contemptible RINO's.

The NJ GOP establishment has officially declared war on Conservatism and Conservative candidates in this State.

Mike

I disagree. It is not a war on conservatives. The party poobahs are just provincial little twits who only like "their kind". They don't like people who went to state colleges, not lawyers, live in cities or don't have silent vowels ending their names.

I though...

I thought Christie's greatest strength was his term as prosecutor, in which he cracked-down on people who broke the rules.

Now, all of a sudden, the rules don't matter?

"We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work!"
- FDR's Treasure Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, in 1939, on 8 years of New Deal spending as an attempt to end the Great Depression.

They were lucky when Whitman

They were lucky when Whitman was first elected that Florio was in office. Whitman's re-election margin was very thin. The NJGOP has issues ranging back to Pete Dawkins.

Regards,
Student of Lorenz University

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