Mike Doherty

Gov.-elect Chris Christie (at podium) with, from left: Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, State GOP Chairman Jay Webber, and Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean.

Leaders of a once fractured minority party - over the last years seemingly constantly at the verge of splitting farther apart - see unity in Gov.-elect Chris Christie.

During the campaign, Christie regularly invoked the example of former Gov. Tom Kean, a moderate, then publicly embraced movement conservative Steve Lonegan in the closing days of the general election campaign to solidify his Republican base.

Kean's son, state Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) said he believes Christie's leadership abilities are expansive enough to include both the conservative wing and moderate wing of the GOP, in addition to independents and Democrats.

Not unlike his own father's skills in that regard.

From left: GOP nominee Chris Christie, Assemblyman John DiMaio (R-Hackettstown), Steve Lonegan.

FLEMINGTON - Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie this afternoon stood onstage with the man he conquered in the June Primary: former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, leader of the conservative movement in New Jersey, who promptly bashed President Barack Obama.

"The people who crossed the Atlantic Ocean in ships didn't come here looking for security and a welfare check, they came here seeking freedom and liberty," Lonegan told an excited crowd packing the sidewalk in front of the Hunterdon County Courthouse. "Barack Obama doesn't understand that simple message.

"Those folks had learned a lesson that Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid do not understand," Lonegan said.

A day before Obama is scheduled to appear at rallies in Camden and Newark in support of Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, the crowd cheered in the rain.

"Some of my friends said they were going to write Steve Lonegan in," added the former gubernatorial candidate. "But let me tell you, we have an opportunity to take back New Jersey, to make New Jersey the economic leader it once was. The best man did win. The best man will put an end to the advancement of the Corzine-Obama team."

A group of conservative legislators and activists is holding a press conference today in Trenton to support a constitutional referendum that would effectively ban gay marriage.  

According to the state’s largest gay rights organization, their choice of a date is ironic.

“We’re not saying that all public figures should refrain from doing public events today.   We’re saying it is inconsistent of these public figures, who have claimed broad religious support for their anti-equality campaign, to choose Yom Kippur for their news conference,” said Garden State Equality Vice-Chair Jeff Gardner.  “Are they not aware today is Yom Kippur, and if not, what does that say about their diversity of support?  Or are they aware?”

Yom Kippur, during which Jews fast and pray to atone for their sins, is arguably the religion’s holiest day.  

Gardner pointed to the scheduled participation of Len Deo of the New Jersey Family Policy Council, which on its Web site says it presents “the ideals and principles needed to restore public opinion, attitudes, and behaviors to reflect a Judeo-Christian worldview.”

Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno

In recent years, a few inter-party contests stand out as wars, and as George W. Bush's numbers threatened to flat-line in New Jersey, Democrats felt a surge of confidence in Monmouth County, where they ramrodded GOP excess and Bush backlash into annual wins on the freeholder board and a Senate victory by Ellen Karcher for territory that could be described as leaning in their favor but finally uneasy.

2007 proved the Democrats' penultimate chance to squeeze as much citizen angst as possible out of the GOP's control of Monmouth and Bush's perceived deepsixing of his own party, and nowhere was the countervailing intensity better demonstrated than Jennifer Beck's challenge of Karcher in the 12th District and, in less publicized if no less intense fashion, Kim Guadagno's battle with Belmar Police Chief Jack Hill for a vacancy at county sheriff.  

Both women won - Guadagno narrowly - and in the process earned reputations as tough, well-prepared campaigners.

Consequently, at various stages of Chris Christie's journey as a Republican gubernatorial candidate, Beck and Guadagno have been mentioned in GOP circles as potential candidates for lieutenant governor, with the former's name surfacing as early as last summer while Christie was still U.S. Attorney, then fading for the most part; and Guadagno's coming louder late in the process here.

Conservatives Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Twp), who will soon move up to the state Senate after beating the moderate state Sen. Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan) in this month’s primary, gave Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie high marks his pick of Jay Webber for Republican State Chairman.

“I think Jay Webber is a great pick. He’s a Ronald Reagan conservative and has been a leader on all the conservative issues that The Republican base looks for and will do a great job,” said Doherty.

Christie tapped Webber last week to succeed Tom Wilson, who represented the more moderate wing of the party.  The move was applauded by conservatives, many of whom supported Steve Lonegan in the primary against Christie. 

Assemblyman MIke Doherty (R-Washington Twp.)

It was a different scene than it was in Clinton earlier this year when establishment Republicans felt like misfit grunts bucking KP duty as Assemblyman Mike Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) bellowed out a speech from atop the stage at the middle school.

Stunned when they voted against him and chose Marcia Karrow to succceed the mild-mannered Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton), Doherty stubbornly launched what many assessed as an implausible primary campaign.  

This morning at the Republicans' unity breakfast at the Mountainview Chalet in Asbury, Doherty called his win over incumbent state senator Karrow the toughest of his decade-long political career.

"I've been through a lot of tough primaries, but Marcia was the heartiest competitor," said Doherty.

Defeated by Karrow in that January special election, Doherty aligned with movement conservative Steve Lonegan's gubernatorial candidacy to come back and beat Karrow Tuesday night, 52% to 48%.

Lonegan backer Col. Manly Rash of Somerset.

It's hard to look across no-man's land a day before Election Day and avoid the sight of three familiar figures once again battling other primary opponents for political survival: GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan, Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Twp.) and Assemblyman Mike Doherty (R-Washington Twp.).

Assemblyman Mike Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) and senate campaign volunteer Xiaoqiao Zhang.

CLINTON - Battling state Sen. Marcia Karrow's (R-Raritan) earlier week endorsement by the National Rifle Association (NRA), challenger Assemblyman Mike Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) did a Sunday morning church blast touting his backing by New Jersey Right to Life.

Assemblyman John DiMaio (R-Hackettstown)

CLINTON - Among those Assembly districts where socially conservative Lonegan allies fight establishment Republicans, stands the battleground of the 23rd District.

Assemblyman John DiMaio (R-Hackettstown)

HACKETTSTOWN – Each of the anti-gay marriage, pro-gun, pro-life Republican candidates in the 23rd District Assembly race tried to run to the right of the other two in a radio debate on WRNJ this week, separately railing against taxing and spending in Trenton, while parting company on the gubernatorial contest. 

Assemblyman John DiMaio (R-Hackettstown) and his running mate, Hunterdon County Freeholder Erik Peterson, both running on a ticket with state Sen. Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp.), are trying to fend off Ed Smith of Asbury, an ally of anti-establishment senate candidate Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Twp.). 

Warren County-based businessman DiMaio beat Hunterdon-based attorney Peterson at a joint Warren-Hunterdon County convention in February.  Then they teamed up with Karrow under the auspices of Chris Christie’s gubernatorial campaign.