Mike Doherty

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.  

State Sen. Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp.)

HACKETTSTOWN – Assemblyman Mike Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) said he’ll live or die politically with gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan, whose rival, state Sen. Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp.), acted like Lonegan’s flat tax provided her with a generous opening in their WRNJ radio debate here this morning.

“My opponent has embraced a tax plan that would raise taxes on 70 percent of the people in this state and in my district,” Karrow said. “The median income in my district is about $32,000 per year. People making $32,000 a year will have a tax increase under the plan Mr. Doherty has embraced, in addition to losing their rebates. I don’t how they will survive in this state.”

Doherty stood by Lonegan, particularly when he highlighted his own commitment to revamping Abbott Schools funding and, in his own words, taking on what he described as New Jersey’s activist judiciary.

Assemblyman Mike Doherty (R-Washington Twp.)

RARITAN TWP. – Assemblyman Mike Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) swings onto a road that must have been full blown farm country ten years ago that now has that creeping suburban bedroom community feeling to it among some last standing barns and cornrows.

“The only people who care where you’re from are the party insiders,” says the Essex County native, who moved out here to God’s country following his service in the U.S. Army. His eyes dart from the list of registered Republicans back to the road as his sedan slices through the rain, bumps over the lip of yet another driveway and rolls to a stop behind a two-car garage.

Doherty knows all about the party insiders, having beaten his head against their structures in several elections, won, and lost in heart-breaking fashion on that bitter afternoon in mid-January.

So, he’s going directly to the voters. “I’ve always done it this way,” he announces. 

Former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, right, with state Sen. Kip Bateman (R-Somerset).

Chris Christie made a multi-stop swing through South Jersey over the weekend and kept his sites trained on Gov. Jon Corzine in a new television ad, while Steve Lonegan, as far as 23 points back in the latest Quinnipiac University poll, hammered the GOP frontrunner wherever he could in advance of their 101.5 radio debate tonight.

As Christie marched in Hamilton’s Memorial Day Parade, Lonegan blasted out a press release branding the former U.S. Attorney as a media darling. “The liberal-left is worried about a real conservative winning in a ‘blue’ state and are lining up behind Chris Christie,” read the release, citing endorsements from the Philadelphia Inquirer and local weekly the Hanover Eagle.

Not content to snipe from afar, Lonegan went into the heart of enemy territory to denounce campaign literature that the former mayor of Bogota said wrongly attacked his chief Warren/Hunterdon County ally, Assemblyman Mike Doherty (R-Washington Twp.), who’s challenging state Sen. Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp.) in the June 2nd GOP Primary.

The Political Prince Of Darkness Strikes Again

LONEGAN CALLS ON CHRISTIE, KYRILLOS AND KEAN JR. TO CONDEMN ATTACK ON DOHERTY’S PATRIOTISM

PARSIPPANY -- Speaking in front of Christie Campaign Headquarters in Parsippany, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan called on opponent Chris Christie - as well as Christie's campaign chairman and co-chairman - to distance themselves from a direct mailer and robo-call that attacks the patriotism of a fellow Republican.

Steve Lonegan

The campaign ad of a ramrod Assemblyman Mike Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) happily ingesting the oratory of former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan at the minimum suggests he would be a short list candidate for lieutenant governor in a Lonegan administration. 

Not likely, said Lonegan. Right cred, wrong timing.

“Mike’s going to be in the Senate,” Lonegan told PolitickerNJ.com, referring to what he hopes will be Doherty’s successful anti-establishment efforts in the 23rd District Republican Primary, where he is challenging state Sen. Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp.).

Lonegan stops short of presenting names when asked to compile an LG short list. 

Ron Paul, who endorsed Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan today, also urged his New Jersey supporters to vote for Assemblyman Mike Doherty (R-Oxford) for state Senate.

Doherty was the only member of the New Jersey legislature (and perhaps the only elected official in the state) to endorse Paul for president.  Doherty is now running against incumbent Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan Twp), who beat Doherty in a special convention to succeed U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance in the state Senate, on Lonegan’s slate. 

Steve Lonegan, far right, with Ed Smith, center, and Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Twp.) tonight in Flemington.

FLEMINGTON - You don’t have to look beyond a stuffed trophy on the wall at the Croton Rod and Gun Club to know they mean business here, as it’s not just the bear head but a torso, arms and paws jutting out of the paneling over the bar and baseball caps and one straw cowboy hat perched on a delighted audience member who claps again as gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan tears into another subject.

“In my first four years, two judges will retire and two will be up for confirmation,” says Lonegan, who promises he won’t reconfirm the two who presumably will try to remain on the Supreme Court bench. “I will be appointing the four most conservative judges New Jersey’s ever seen.”

“Yeah!”

The crowd of about 60 people at this scheduled Hunterdon County meet-and-greet applauds heartily.

The former mayor of Bogota running for governor as the hard-line conservative says as governor he would require each judge to go before the voters every six years. “We’ll keep them in check that way,” he says over the growing applause.