How does this ad set the record straight about Christie's record? I did not hear him address his poor ethical judgement or lack of policy positions. He did not say that his stance on abortion is the same as Mayor Lonegan's. It is just another deparate and vapid ad from the desparate and vapid candidate.

It's a sweat fest over at Team Christie!!

The toilets are backing up at NJ GOP headquarters..

Christie probably figured that many of Lonegan's core supporters would not vote for him in the general election anyway, Murray said.

Very astute observation, indeed.

Scared...as he should be!

Wrong guy! Should be attacking the candidate who can win in the Fall. The only one who looks like a Governor and has the Legislative record. Rick Merkt is the best candidate.

CC has lost the direction. JC is the target that the "annointed" one should be attacking.

By attacking SL, he has admitted that SL is a serious issue worthy of concern. Dumb butt move.

I worry more about the "moderates" going home and sulking if they lose the Primary. Especially all the County Chairs that the dumped all their eggs in one basket and found out that the NJGOP has no money. If SL wins the Primary, they will be out of the loop.

The "wingnuts" have everything to gain if either CC or SL wins the Fall. They can gadfly CC or remind SL if he deviates from the line. They will have a cottage industry.

This dumb move may have cost Christie the Primary. Going after Lonegan on the issues is one thing. Lying about his record is another. Lonegan did cut taxes in his home town. Christie has never cut anything.

So much for Party Unity on June 3rd 

I thought this was serious bizness Steve?  I thought that was why we had to listen to your long-ass windbag speeches on boring crap.  Because this is serious bizness.

not "gaming." 

I don't get it. This is 'Lexically Or Intellectually Disabled.' (That is retarded for you who is not pooitcially correct).

Is there a more hypocritical bunch then you Lonegan people. "Party Unity on the 3rd"??? Have you seen the pieces that you have been sending out? Have you listened to the robo calls? Read the e-mails? Listened to the radio? Read pieces by your water carriers Grossman & LaRossa? You people are a joke....

If the suckapocalypse (this primary season) ends with Steve 'Lispy' lonegan on top, methinks the Republican party in NJ will be tango uniform post November.

 So no worries about 'unity' fuckwit.  This shit will be game over.   No more marios, the princess dies.

As far as I know this is the first time a serious politician ever went negative on Steve Lonegan. His opposition in Bogota was always very weak. Lonegan never has had to take a good punch before in any campaign.

It's a good start!

My view is that Lonegan and Shaftan are dirtballs, but they do know something about campaigning, and should not be underestimated.

Screw Corzine. There will be more than enough time to deal with him after June 2.

Now is the time to really pile it on. Put out a BS newspaper -- like RS/SL. Look at the % of BOGOTA votes Lonegan got when running against Baer and Rothman. Dig into the ongoing civil suits that Lonegan may be a party to. Dig up his Bogota ethics disclosure forms. Look into what happened in Bergenfield when he was administrator, including what happened with any chief or assistant tax assessor there. Or the illegal immigrants working in his garage, or the sidewalk stones in front of his Bogota Longview apartments, or his January 2008 press conference on a possible AG investigation, or his Anytown USA movie screw-ups, or (about dozen other things), not to mention his lack of transparency in this campaign with respect to releasing donor names and tax returns.

Lonegan and Shaftan have never had to take a punch together!

From what I have seen Christie is going to lose when he tries to debate or talk about detailed plans. I want to see these debates.

Anybody who thinks this is a good sign must be smoking or drinking something. As I stated in another post you can't put lipstick on a pig, and trying to spin the latest poll results in favor of the blimp is simply delusional.

The fact is Christie has not caught on with the electorate, and instead of building up his own image while tearing down Corzine he has to waste his limited resources attacking Looneygan.

By now Christie should have been ahead by alot more than nine points among likely voters and Looneygan should have been put away. Instead Christie has to backtrack and now go negative on Looneygan.

The fact Looneygan has gotten even this close shows what a poor ineffective candidate Christie is. It's like the captain of the high school football team losing his prom date to the class dork.

Christie's going backwards, not forwards. He's in big trouble now, and he better pray for good weather and high turnout to get a win.

"I worry more about the "moderates" going home and sulking if they lose the Primary."

They won't go gome, that's for sure. Some of them may hold their nose, and some may not, but they'll just vote for Corzine or Daggett.

The wingnuts are more likely to stay home if CC wins unless they have a third party or indy candidate they can vote for.

but they shouldn't overdo it. The core Lonegan boosters are locked in. Given the misleading drivel that Shaftan/lonegan have been putting out, it's important to let the uncommitteds know a little bit about the man who would be governor.

Like how he made artificial cuts to keep his numbers low and passed the invoice on to his successors. How he declined to run for a 3rd term as mayor because he knew he would lose and had to "resign" to preserve his political viability. How he's been running for Governor non-stop for 4 years under the cloak of an issue group and has still yet to expand his supporters beyond the ultra conservatives who have been with him all along.

What does it say about him as a candidate that the people who knew him best were ready to send him packing?

Spell it with me people: U-N-E-L-E-C-T-A-B-L-E.

All the distortion and all the spin don't change the fact that he has lost far more elections than he has won. His rosiest picture right now has him down by 10 points yet by the rantings of his supporters, you'd swear that they though they were winning. The same poll they are crowing about now show Lonegan losing to Corzine while Christie still leads Corzine comfortably.

He is not winning, nor shall he, nor will he.

Not the ad per se, but the recognition by the Christie campaign that the timing was off on their run-out-the-clock strategy.

For a while now Christie's people seem to have been operating under the presumption that Chris had a large enough buffer to just wait it out till the primary - knowing that Lonegan had the momentum but figuring he didn't have enough time to cover the ground he needed.

Previously, Lonegan might be benefited by forcing Christie to recognize him - but a routine had developed over the past month or so which if allowed to continue would have had him overtaking Christie pretty much at the perfect time.

Credit to the Christie campaign for showing flexibility and a willingness to change strategies when the weakness in one was exposed.

I do not believe Christie was playing "run out the clock."

Lonegan proved he has been wasting money because he has been pissing it away at a time when no one, even Republicans, are paying attention to the race.

Now is about the time people start paying attention and the Christie camp is doing what they planned on all along.

They will still lose in November.

Timing=everything.

The only question is: will the pre-primary bullshit cost the Rs the win in November?

Answer=yes.

Go organize a Golf Outing for Christie on June 2nd.

With your track record he will be broke by June 3rtd

Anyone who knows even the basics of marketing will tell you that a leading product never mentions their adversary in commercials. Coke never mentions Pespi in an ad, though Pepsi has mentioned Coke. McD's never mentions BK, though BK has mentioned McD's. And on and on.

Surveys have shown that the gap between the two candidates has closed. Still, Christie is in the lead against a candidate that still does not have great name recognition, according to polls. Christie is now GIVING Lonegan name recognition.

Bad move. Panic move. And it will cost Christie.

"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.

It shows Corzine in front of a projection screen and his shadow looks like a Hitler salute. These campaign marketers are too savvy for this to be an accident. Is it anti-semetic?

You saw this before or after you were drinking?

That's just way too nuts even for this Blog.

What is for absolutely sure is that Lonegan decided to negative on Christie a long time ago.

I personally think that Christie going negative is great for Christie, it shows he has some fight, and we need a fighter in Trenton. Heck, if Christie goes negative long enough, I will probably send him $7,000 from my wife and myself and maybe other friends. Let's get this party started!

However, we can all agree that Christie going negative is bad for Lonegan.

I dont play golf, or host golf.

What the f r u talking about?

While you think of some retrded garbage to respond with, a haiku for you, you beetlehead:

    Who is always wrong

    Spring or Fall it dont matter

    Paramus fails it 

-From the compilation: "Haiku for Those Who Epic-Fail Life"

By BergenRulz, 2009 

Despite Joe Schilp's prodigious knowledge of marketing, the reality is that negative campaigning works. The most devastating political ads in history have all focused on an opponent. Think of 'Willie Horton" or Dukakis in a tank. Think Lee Atwater and Ed Rollins. Think James Carville and Paul Begala.  Think Karl Rove.

"Negative" camapigning gets a bad rap because of consultants like Shaftan, who prosecute their campaigns in a mindlessly viscious manner. You can be critical of your opponent, you just can't come across as a raging a-hole.  Once you define your opponent in a negative light, it tends to stick.  The best way to neutralize an opponent is to force him to defend himself rather than promote himself or attack you.   

Christie is at a critical juncture of his campaign.  He has pushed the "hero prosecutor" thing as far as it will go. He doesn't seem to be able to translate his experience as a lawman into a case for his ability to govern. So all he has left is to go after Lonegan lest Mayor Steve deconstruct him to the point of no return. Christie has to hit back at Lonegan and get him back on his heels.

Christie also has to deal with the cell phone tracking issue.  While those comprising the "neo-fascist" wing of the GOP think it's just swell to use the Constitution as toilet paper, many principled conservatives from the Goldwater/Buckley/Reagan wing of the party are appalled by this practice.  The fact that Merkt has strongly condemned this practice is potentially toxic for Christie not because Merkt is a viable candidate, but because his words will be used by Lonegan, Corzine and the press to bash Chris with impunity.

It's a very good time fro Christie to make Lonegan's myriad foibles the issue de jour. 

Snake Pliskin?  I heard you were dead.

First, I never said that negative campaigning does not work. What I said was that you don't give name recognition to the second fiddle if you are the top banana.

What you are right about is that Christie has ridden the "hero prosecutor" thing as far has he can. My wife - not very politically active - is sick of seeing his commercials and it's freaking April! That said, Christie has ridden his strength as far as he can and is still not polling at 50% or better.

Instead of focusing on #2, he needs to focus on giving people a reason to vote for him. His campaign team has had 7 contacts with me not including those ads and I have no idea what he stands for. Phony phone polls and mail from his wife telling me what a great guy he is before the county convention don't do a thing to earn my vote.

After watching Forrester lose to Schundler in the county convention 4 years ago, instead of attacking Schundler, Forrester released a plan to cut taxes and ran on that.  Guess who won the primary here without the county line.

Christie's move smacks of desperation. But then, maybe he is desperate because after "hero prosecutor," there's not much left in the tank.

"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.

As you surmise, Joe, Christie's problem is that he has little left in the tank at this point. He's worn out his standard law hero schtick, he's got everyone and his uncle going for his jugular and he's stagnated in terms of his poll numbers.  And I say this as someone who has publicly professed his support for CC on this site. 

The reason he's going after Lonegan is that he realizes he has lost traction. His handlers are willing to pursue this course because they've weighed the respective demerits of giving Lonegan legitimacy by engaging in confrontation with him against letting him continue to pollute the voting public with his agressive rhetoric.

As much as I think Lonegan has jumped the political shark, he is making it uncomfortable for Christie with his nuclear winter campaign tactics. The crap Lonegan is throwing is already being used by the Dems against Christie. Now Merkt, as irrelevant as he may be in terms of electoral significance, is bitch-slapping him on the cell phone issue. At this point, Christie is well-served to attempt to delegitimize his main antagonist by firing a few rounds in Mayor Steve's general direction.

Frontrunners lose elections all the time because they subscribe to the theory that "if I ignore my opponent he will simply go away." Lonegan has a puncher's chance at best. He's the Tony Galento of the 2009 Governor's race. But "Two-Ton Tony" floored the great Joe Louis. The biggest danger for Christie is that for every wild shot Lonegan throws at his chin, one may actually land and do some damage down the road.  Lonegan may not win the primary, but he could help lose Christie the war. 

As for Forrester, he beat Bret because Bret burned his bridges with his base. Forrester was the worst candidate I ever worked with and his "victory" was due to nothing more than "Bret fatigue" on the part of many Republicans.  Plus, didn't Lonegan run and take away a significant enough part of the conservative base to weaken Bret?   

But Joe, there is hope for us yet. We actually agree on several levels and you make many good points about Christie's candidacy.  Have a great NFL draft day and please pray that the Jets don't do anything incredibly stupid this afternoon. 

Snake Pliskin?  I heard you were dead.

I believe that Steve Lonegan is the strongest Republican candidate for Governor. His ability to force Christie's campaign to mount negative radio spots against him illustrate that Christie is the weakest of the two candidates. Lonegan was merely stating the facts. Christie's resorting to attacking Lonegan, represents poor character and poor judgement. Steve Lonegan is the strongest candidate because he has good character and good judgement. Christie has shown himself to be nothing more than a Republican transplant of Corzine.

Snake, if the Jets didn't do something stupid on Draft Day, they wouldn't be the Jets. Blair Thomas over Emmitt Smith, Cortez Kennedy and Junior Seau? Johnny Mitchell over Dale Carter and Chester McGlockton? Ken O'Brien over Dan Marino?

Anyhow, the chief concern of voters is economics, and Christie desperately needs to show he's a master at economics. Instead, he looks more like McCain on economics.

I know Lonegan knows his economics. I've read his book.

"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.

If your not already working for the GOP, you should be.

You sound like you forgot more about politics then Tom Wilson knows.

Good postings!

on this thread! Why hasn't CC put this Primary away already? CC and the NJGOP have only been working the converted. Look at the events CC has attended. SL has been going after the base of those whose only party activity is that they registered as Republican. These are the people that don't care who their local chairman is or haven't been to a local party function. This going negative on SL is a scare reaction. If SL wins in June, the NJGOP will be out of the loop. His org won't need them and their "closed shop".

I'm happily retired from GOP politics at this point. I'm more than content to intermittently kibitz on this forum.

Snake Pliskin?  I heard you were dead.

The nightmares of Jets fans never truly go away. I am impressed that you not only cited the actual pick, but who we passed up.

Christie's biggest challenge as a candidate has always been the fact that he is a "one trick pony." The audience is clamouring for a second act, and Christie is left standing awkwardly on center stage without one.

I blame his handlers for this. They made huge mistakes in crafting his candidacy. They assumed that CC could steamroll his way through the primary based on his record as a Prosecutor, his organizational support and his name recognition.  They also assumed Corzine was effectively DOA and Christie could walk over his corpse based on said prosecutorial record and the baseless confidence CC tends to exude.

They were lazy and arrogant. They never bothered to make CC do the heavy lifting that successful candidates must do. Christie never developed that second trick he needs at this point, which would be a functional knowledge of economics and the ability to convey such concepts to voters.

If his handlers have a brain in their head (which I sometimes doubt), they will lock CC in a room with an economics guru and force feed him a crash course in Reaganomics 101 (that's Reaganomics mind you, not Bushanomics). Then he needs to come out with a non-generic plan to reduce spending and cut taxes. All I've seen from CC so far is the same crapola every politician trots out, including Corzine back in 2005. 

And Joe, your McCain analogy is dead on. McCain's record of service to his country earned him both respect and name recognition, as did Christie's accomplishments as Prosecutor. But the times we live in require more than that. A candidate must be able to enunciate an economic vision and illuminate a path to prosperity. If CC can't do this, he likely beats Lonegan in the primary but ultimately loses to Corzine in November.

Snake Pliskin?  I heard you were dead.

"the reality is that negative campaigning works."

Depends. Maybe in a close election with a credible opponent. However, this election should never have gotten this close and Steve Lonegan has as much credibility for a gubernatorial candidate in New Jersey as a pig in a yeshiva.

Christie's problem is complacency and laziness. He needs to quit worrying about smiling at his son's baseball game and start worrying about solidifying his tenuous support among likely voters.

This election is in danger of becoming "Revenge of the Nerds, Part IV: Nerds Take Trenton".

The Corpulant One needs to spend less time reconnoitering the buffet tables and dessert trays at these stupid dinners and fundraisers for party bosses, and take to the streets, shopping malls and public gatherings to meet voters and at least give the appearance he has something else on his mind besides how many jelly donuts will be left over after the next scheduled political function.

One has to ask Christie why he wont get illegals in for a medical exam before we all fall ill because this latest outbreak.

Will Chris Christie call for the reopening of Ellis Island ?

I love John McCain, the war hero. I've read his books and he's a true American hero. But when he said that he didn't really know anything about economics a year ago, he blew his campaign. The guy ran in 2000 and knew he'd run again in 2008, so he had 8 freaking years to learn just the basics about economics. He could've read Hazlitt's book and been able to speak with enough authority to impress the American voters.

Instead, he said he knew nothing. Then, after picking Palin and climbing in the polls, the economy stalled and McCain's proclamation of economic ignorance came back to haunt him. That and his stopping his campaign to go to Washington and do... nothing.

Christie's the same thing. I received another one of his mailpieces today. It says he's going to "veto unnecessary spending and cut the income tax." But doesn't the governor present the budget to the legislature? If so, what, exactly, is Christie going to cut before the legislature even gets hold of the budget? And what constitutes "unnecessary spending?"

Chris Christie is far too vague. Lonegan has said exactly what he will cut. And Lonegan has written a book about economics. I trust Lonegan on economics far more than I trust Christie.

"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.

دردشة سعودي

منتديات سعودي

منوعات

That newspaper is negative campaigning -- and it works. Christie needs to answer it (and Lonegan lunatics save your breath about it being all true, it certainly is spun, and Christie has plenty of true things to say that put him in a good light and Lonegan in a poor light, without the Lonegan spin) and then put Lonegan on the defensive.

Personally, I have not yet seen or heard any Christie negative ads. I have heard Lonegan's radio spot about Christie going negative and something like an ethical cloud over Christie's head. Geez, Lonegan has gone much more negative and has a friggin' hurricane tornadoe ethical cloud over his head.

A little point of information is that I prefer Christie to Corzine (and will vote for Christie and encourage other GOPers to do the same in the primary) but Corzine to Lonegan. In the unlikely even Lonegan pulls off an upset in the primary, this Christie voter (and I doubt I am alone) will not stay home. I will vote for Corzine happily and without holding my nose.

As far as Obama and McCain, Obama is easily the worst President in history. However, McCain would have been worse. McCain was all over the map on issues, and at least now there will be an anit-Obama limited government backlash. If McCain was elected he'd also pull the governemnt leftwards, not get reelected and we'd have someone even worse than Obama (yes it is possible now adays) four years from now. Unfortunately, I think two dirtballs (Lonegan and Shaftan) are riding the backlash.

Ok, I think Looneygan is a lying sack of pus, and so are his handlers.

Christie finally had no choice but to stamp out this little cockroach after months of looneygans mailers, robo calls et al.

If looneygan somehow wins the primary, it is the same thing as just handing over the gov seat back to corzine.

So instead of wasting a good vote on a lying POS like Loengan or an equally lying POS like corzine - there is NO diff between the two, I would and will write in my favorite rocker, Mick Jagger, at least Mick is a real man and well has great talent!

Whatta all say?????

Thanks Padre for proving the point in post #37.  Liberals are liberals.  Your admission that you will vote for either Christie of Corzine proves the facts behind that these two men are identical in policy.  You prefer one over the other based entirely on personality, not policy, since their polcies are the same.

However, as conservatives we will not vote for either, and that is why Steve Lonegan is going to win.

Life is more than one-dimensional with "liberal" on one end of a one-dimensional spectrum and "conservatism" on the other.

I believe in individual responsibility, limited governement and private property. You can call that "liberal" if you want.

Frankly I don't like Lonegan's position on billboards (what is he going to do, have a Taliban English Apporval Billboard board). I also don't like his plan to extend income taxes to lower middle class New Jeseyans and to increase income taxes on middle class New Jerseyans. I also don't like his government funded campaign and that I think he trolled for illegal immigrants that were in fact found working on campaign signs in his garage. If that is conservatism, it sucks.

Elections are about character and issues. As far as character goes, Christie has it, he is 130 for 130 on convictions of scum bags. Lonegan is maybe batting .100 on the ethics BS he through out there a couple of years ago. Christie has not hired illegal immigrants and Lonegan has. The NJ AG is not investigating Christie, but according to Lonegan's own January 2008 press conference the NJ AG may be investigating Lonegan.

So Christie trumps Lonegan on character.

On issues it is closer but based on what I wrote a few paragraphs up, I think Christie wins also.

Have fun in your black and white, liberal and conservative one dimensional worl.

BTW, I don't give a rat's ass about "personality" but I do care about character.

Christie sent out a great piece the other day ladened with pure FACTS on why he is able to beat Corzine, not BS

With Lonegan you get: I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed I am owed

Ge the picture? Its all about Lonegan and his over inflated bad hair rug ego

"In the unlikely even Lonegan pulls off an upset in the primary, this Christie voter (and I doubt I am alone) will not stay home. I will vote for Corzine happily and without holding my nose."

You will not be alone. If Christie pays more attention to take-out menus than he does to recent polls, the weather is so bad on June 2 and the turnout so low that Looneygan wins the primary, then hundreds of thousands of registered RINOs, like myself, will also vote for Corzine without holding our nose.

However, it should not come to that. If Christie has any credibility as a viable candidate, with all the advantages he posesses, he needs to put Looneygan away now, not wait to see if the race tightens any further. If he can't beat a useless dork and professional loser like Looneygan decisively, he'll never beat Corzine.

Christie is an amoral product of the disfunctional GOP in NJ. He is a straw man functionary without a heart or soul. Lonegan is a populist and it happens to be the Right's time to have them as opposed to the Left's.

why not just stay home then and let Lonegan have the win and then you all can vote for the alternative liberal in John Corzine?  After all, it appears to many of us that it matters not between Christie/Corzine, many of you will simply flip a coin when you vote in November.  However, conservatives will not vote for Corzine if Lonegan loses (and from the looks of things he is going to win, but I digress).  So to be fair, maybe the liberals in the Republican Party could simply sit the primary out.  That way they will have a candidate and so will we.  Rather then just have the entire election season to themselves like they always do.

I thought being liberal was all about "fairness".  Well, this appears fair, we can all vote in November in this way.  If Christie does win in June then many of us no longer have anyone to vote for, while if Lonegan wins all of you still do.  Seems perfectly fair to me.

Plus, and again those pesky little facts.  No liberal Republican hand picked by the machine has won since 1997.  I believe that was TWELVE YEARS AGO!  So just this once, why not try and let someone else take the wheel a little while.  Just for a few months, after all, what do you Republican liberals have to lose.  You still have someone to vote for in November right?

The legislative branch runs the show. All three "major" candidates have no Trenton time (JC is still an outsider) and no one will tell them where the Men's room is.

I will and others will NEVER WASTE our good votes on a Steve Lonegan. All you looney lonegan supporters have pretty shown your true colors.

You seem to dictate to us who we vote for instead of allowing us our choices.

Not ONE christie supporter has demanded like the lonegan loonies that you have to vote for him.

I have a choice and it AINT GONNA be Lonegan, Ever!

If Lonegan is knocked out by June, I can enjoy the summer, hoping Christie will win, but knowing that either way at least Lonegan is out.

If Lonegan wins the primary (sorry formaja it ain't likely) then I get another chance to knock him out in November.

It reminds me of when Marie Le Pen won the chance to be in the runoff in France a few years ago. All the liberals, all the independents, all the moderates and half the conservatives made sure he did not win the whole thing.

Lonegan has been a low class fool his entire political career. Those who know him, especially those in Northeaster Jersey, would rather vote for Uncle Floyd than Steve Lonegan. The only reason he has a chance is the 2-1 government match, and Shaftan's mailing list (possible supplemented by an AFP list in my opinion) and the stupidity of most voters (including conservative voters) who are too ignorant to "despin" Lonegan and Shaftan's "newspaper", which is where they received just about all they know about both Christie and Lonegan.

"Lonegan has been a low class fool his entire political career."

He has been the clown jester of the wingnut branch in the NJGOP. However, it is time to put him and his extreme ideas in their place. I want to keep the GOP safe for respectable mainstream voters, and not see it become the vehicle for promoting crackpot notions.

I am becoming concerned that the Corpulant One may not be able to defeat Looneygan and his Looney ideas as decisively as I would like. It is important that Looneygan be beaten so badly that not only he is discredited but his crackpot ideas as well.

in that a more mainstream, big tent republican hasn't won statewide in 12 years. That would be a damning fact if not for the reality that an arch conservative Republican has NEVER won. So you can take that streak back 1200 years or more. Makes 12 years look pretty good, actually.

The last true conservative to run statewide was Bret Schundler. I happen to like Schundler. Every bit as conservative as Lonegan except with far more appeal, charisma and intellect. On the whole, a much, much better candidate.  Schundler not only lost (to McGreevey no less), he got pummeled.

Why these zealots think veering far right is the appropriate strategy in a centrist, blue-leaning state state should be beyond anyone with an IQ of at least 12. Remember again that Lonegan left the mayoralty because the numbers said he was going to lose in Bogota. This is not a good indication for state wide viabilty.

because he was a conservative. He lost because the NJGOP was ticked that he beat Bob Franks. They lost control of the process after they had put all their eggs in Donnie D's basket. It was the meltdown that they never recovered from and never learned from.

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.