-- “I look forward to debating Chris on Saturday morning.” LONEGAN: VAPID DOUBLETALK WILL NOT BEAT CORZINE ORADELL -- With just three days until the first campaign debate, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan warned a potential opponent “vapid doubletalk will not beat Jon Corzine.”Lonegan aimed his comments at former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, who Lonegan says has avoided comment on virtually every single issue of importance including most recently a question about COAH on Monday night.The former Bogota Mayor said he looked forward to Saturday morning’s debate with Christie and two other candidates.  The debate, sponsored by the Somerset County Federation of Republican Women at the Fox Hollow Golf Club, 50 Fox Chase Run, Branchburg, will run from 8:30-10 am.“I look forward to debating Mr. Christie.  So far, his alleged campaign has been one of intellectually insulting platitudes and statements so banal that even his strongest supporters are starting to ask questions,” Lonegan said.  “I know because every day more and more are coming over to our team.”“I certainly hope to see more substance from Chris in this debate.  He owes it to his fellow Republicans to stop acting like one of his lawyered-up criminal suspects when someone asks him a question about anything other than sports or Bruce Springsteen.  He needs to man up and take a stand on something more controversial than indicting Sharpe James.”Lonegan compared Christie’s “campaign” to that of another famous crime-fighting prosecutor, Thomas E. Dewey of New York, who lost to Franklin Roosevelt in 1944 and Harry Truman in 1948.The former Bogota Mayor notes that historians blame Dewey’s upset loss to Truman on Dewey’s decision to talk in platitudes and avoid controversy, just as Christie is doing.“With a split Democratic Party, Dewey’s people, along with nearly all the national media, thought Truman was finished,” Lonegan explained.  “But while Dewey stayed ‘above the fray’, Truman ripped him to shreds, leading to the expression ‘Give ‘em hell, Harry’.”“That’s exactly the kind of campaign I expect Jon Corzine to run and it’s becoming clear across the state from High Point to Cape May Point that Chris just doesn’t have what it takes to beat Corzine in November,” Lonegan said.“I do.” “Mr. Christie’s speech tonight to the New Jersey Chapter of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors -- ‘Looking forward to the future’ -- bears an uncanny resemblance to Dewey’s 1948 campaign theme ‘Your future lies ahead of you’.”“This kind of mindless drivel is the reason people don’t vote,” Lonegan said.  “Vapid platitudes and vague platforms won’t motivate fed up taxpayers to come to the polls this November,” Lonegan said.  “Taxpayers want a leader who will stand up and speak out, not someone who cowers in a corner, hiding from controversy.”Lonegan said Republicans will not win if they ignore history’s lessons from the past.“Ronald Reagan won New Jersey twice because he took bold stands that sharpened his differences with Jimmy Carter and the liberals, just as I did by winning three times by double-digit margins in a town that voted 64% for Barack Obama,” Lonegan said.  “Chris Christie, on the other hand, couldn’t even win his own primary for renomination as Freeholder, finishing sixth out of six and losing by a 2-1 margin.”“The only way we’re going to beat Jon Corzine is with a clear line between what we believe and what he has done,” Lonegan explained.  “We’re not going to beat Corzine by being Corzine.  We’re not going to beat Corzine by trying to run away from who we are.  “We’re going to beat Corzine by standing tall for working families and always putting taxpayers first.  That’s how we’re going to win the Governorship.  That’s how we’re going to take the State Assembly this November.  And that’s how we’re going to pick up downballot offices from Freeholder to Mayor to Township Committee and Council.”“We’re going to stand tall, stand together and stand as one -- fighting for taxpayers and in defense of our towns and our conservative values,” Lonegan explained.“History repeats itself.  New Jersey Republicans need to decide whether they want to repeat 1980 or 1948,” Lonegan said.  “Republicans across New Jersey are starting to realize that this is the year and now is the time to seize the moment and grasp the opportunity Jon Corzine has given us to take back our state and restore it to the free market beacon it had been for so many years,” Lonegan added.“If not now, then when?  If not us, then who?”  Lonegan asked.  “Corzine must go -- before it’s too late.”Noting that his first campaign radio ad started airing this morning, Lonegan said he hopes to stay on the air “right through to Primary Day, and then beyond.  Our fundraising is going so well that we are very comfortable making this initial investment in getting our message out and showing why it’s time for a change -- time for a conservative change.”“The large network of donors who, with matching funds, have put this campaign over the million dollar mark, have taken us where we are today,” Lonegan added.  “That we are able to get on the air in January more than four months before the primary is a testament to the thousands of individuals who have given of themselves to help our campaign to take back this state.  To them I am eternally grateful.”