Richard Merkt

Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham)

MOUNTAIN LAKES – Intent on keeping gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie pinned down in a Republican primary,  the rightward flanking duo of former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan and Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham)  claimed credit – and victory - this evening for having budged Christie to his current stance on the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH). 

On Thursday, Christie told a Monmouth County crowd that he would “gut COAH and put an end to it,” evidently the first time on the campaign trail that he has spoken of outright scrapping the agency, which mandates low and moderate income housing in all of New Jersey’s 566 municipalities. 

Merkt and Lonegan applauded Christie for appearing to adopt their position, but also read the GOP frontrunner’s change-up as a sign that he’s not tough enough on the issue, and worry that he could be susceptible to equivocation on what they see as other core conservative positions. 

“Four years ago during the gubernatorial primary, I put out a tabloid attacking Jon Corzine’s COAH plan of 100,000 units of affordable housing,” Lonegan said.

State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth), left, introduces former U.S. Attorney Chris Chrisite, with wife Mary Pat.

LINCROFT – On the second day of his two-day campaign kickoff, Chris Christie has sharpened his Wednesday speech into a few short bursts, and in front of a packed house at the Lincroft Inn in this one-time horse farm country turned box store sprawl zone, he toughens his anti-COAH (Council on Affordable Housing) rhetoric.

“If I am governor, I will gut COAH and I will put an end to it,” says Christie, an edited version of underdog gubernatorial candidate Assemblyman Richard Merkt’s (R-Mendham) “If I am governor, I will drive a stake into COAH’s heart, bury it, and make sure it never rises again” mantra.  

The comment gets a raise-the-roof response. 

“You just won the election,” Monmouth County Freeholder Lillian Burry tells the candidate.  

She’s standing behind him and facing the crowd along with other Republican elected officials, including state Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Middletown), state Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Red Bank), state Sen. Sean Kean (R-Wall), Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno, and Middletown Mayor Pam Brightbill.

From left to right: Steve Lonegan, Chris Christie, Brian D. Levine, Richard Merkt.

BRANCHBURG – The Lonegan forces tried to bill this event as “the Thrilla in Branchburg.”

But it proved no Ali-Frazier III this morning, and probably rated little better than the Republican gubernatorial primary of 1985 in terms of give and take, as four 2009 Republican candidates for governor assembled for the first time at a breakfast meeting sponsored by the Somerset County Federation of Republican Women at the Fox Hollow Golf Club.

Amid rumors that former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan planned to set a confrontational tone, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, the presumptive frontrunner, gave Lonegan and/or anyone else little room to generate drama.

After arriving moments before the event began, speedily working the room and delivering a five-minute set of remarks, Christie told the crowd of 150 people that he had to attend his son’s basketball game and hoped they understood.

Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan, right, hobnobs with Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic)

BALTIMORE - As Republicans like state Sen. Tom Kean, Jr., (R-Union) and Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany-Troy Hills) mingled with lobbyists and fellow politicians on the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce train trip to Washington, D.C., this afternoon, Democrats seized on the apparent contradiction of their presence here.

“I’d like to know why the three Republican gubernatorial candidates aren’t interested in finding answers for our economic troubles and are instead all too eager to throw their friends and colleagues under the bus as a political stunt,” said Democratic State Chairman Joe Cryan, referring to thumbs-down statements of the chamber event issued by former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie and other Republicans candidates for governor. 

“We’re hopeful that New Jersey residents will make a quick recovery from the greatest economic downturn in our lifetime,” Cryan added.

Gov. Jon Corzine on today's Chamber of Commerce trip.

NORTHEAST CORRIDOR – The Chamber of Commerce “Walk to Washington” train lurches out of the station and it isn’t even past Newark before some of the old-timers are predicting – with a degree of sadness - that no one’s going to get thrown off the train.

There’s a sense among the Democrats that if they let it all hang out with booze and bad behavior in an economic downturn and gubernatorial election year, they will appear crass and out-of-touch.

The establishment Republicans who are here probably have in their minds a preposition-ending statement issued yesterday by the gubernatorial campaign of Republican frontrunner Chris Christie: "Former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie wants to bring real change to Trenton and that comes with ending politics as usual, which this trip has become a symbol of," said spokesman Bill Stepien.

So they too are restrained as the 14-car train clears the South Ward and this rolling world of business and politics collides in happy but measured ceremony with the gubernatorial election and the economy hovering at the edges of every close-quarters conversation as the train heads for Washington, D.C.

Franklin Twp. Mayor Brian D. Levine at his kickoff today.

FRANKLIN TWP. - A primitive and superstitious reading of the elements would not inure to the symbolic advantage of Mayor Brian D. Levine, who despite an ice storm and hundreds of dead birds falling in near Hitchcockian fashion nonetheless launched his Republican Primary campaign for governor this afternoon at the Quality Inn.

“I’m never one to pass the buck,” said Levine, 50, standing at a podium in a banquet room here in a Democratic-leaning Somerset County town where he is serving his second term as mayor.

“If my detractors want to believe I summoned snow and ice from the sky today to get attention so be it,” he joked in his answer to a question from reporters. “If they think I put this big bird gimmick out there to get attention, that’s fine. I’ll take it. I have a thick skin. Is it bad timing for an announcement? No. Any time is a good time.”

The moderate Republican’s decision to announce – a few days after the USDA revealed that alarming numbers of starlings had fallen onto Franklin residents’ front lawns and backyards and public spaces as a consequence of exterminating pesticides used on a farm in a neighboring township - was really a simple case of pragmatic timing.  

He had planned for weeks to get in before the end of January.Former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie – the presumptive GOP frontrunner – kicks off his campaign next week, inevitably grabbing week-long news cycle oxygen away from his primary competitors, who now include Levine, Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham) and former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan.

Franklin Mayor Brian D. Levine

PRINCETON - Running a campaign with a fixed idea of what government does best and what the private sector does best, Franklin Twp. Mayor Brian D. Levine plans on Wednesday afternoon to formally enter the Republican Primary for governor with a kickoff at the Quality Inn in his hometown.

"As Republicans we have to remember our basic philosophy, which is smaller and more efficient government," Levine told PolitickerNJ.com as he made his way to a candidates' forum at the Hyatt Regency sponsored by the Republican county chair people.

"The basic idea is how do we run a government, not whether someone is or is not for stem cell research," he said. "We can debate those issues and should, of course, but small and efficient government is the starting point."

A CPA by trade and grassroots candidate who won election and re-election in Democratically-controlled Franklin, Levine says he’s used to going door-to-door and generating old fashioned face-to-face political support. 

Currently serving his second term in this Somerset County town of 60,000 residents, Levine, 50, became mayor in a 2003 upset election. A Republican where registered Democrats have the numbers, he put an exclamation point on his local victory when he won re-election in 2007.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr., (R-Union), left; and state Sen. Kevin O'Toole, GOP chairman of Essex County and chair of the GOP chairs.

PRINCETON – It didn’t look like a scene of devastation – or of a coming battle.

In the swank lobby of the Hyatt Regency, water tumbled over rocks and splashed into a pool, where Koi fish gaped up at a swiftly striding figure heading toward a crew of young, BlackBerry-thumbing operatives at the far end of a long, carpeted corridor.

On his way to the Republican Party chairmen’s dinner, Chris Christie took several questions before an aide steered him toward his destination: a room in which 15 of the party’s 21 chair people and party leaders waited to assess the merits of the former U.S. Attorney and three other Republican candidates for governor a month in front of the first county convention in Union.

Like a lot of his colleagues, Ocean County Republican Chairman George Gilmore personally thinks Christie gives his party the best shot at rebirth.

“I will be endorsing Chris Christie,” he said, against the nagging back story of former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, who for months has aggressively organized a grassroots effort in the likely event he’s unable to scale the walls of the establishment at a majority of the party’s nominating conventions.

Former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie (with Scotch Plains Mayor Nancy Malool) at a GOP mixer earlier this month.

In what GOP sources say is the first major gubernatorial fundraiser for former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, Assembly Whip Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) will host a $3,400-a-head dinner at his Westfield home for the Republican frontrunner for governor this Saturday.

Sources say both Christie and his political confidante, Bill Palatucci, will be in attendance at an event sources say has already pulled in $50,000 for Christie.

Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham), left, and campaign manager Chris Venis

If New Jersey receives close to $4 billion in federal stimulus money over two years as suggested by Gov. Jon Corzine, Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham) says the money ought to go to plugging the budget so the state can administer business and corporate tax cuts.

The last thing the underdog candidate for governor wants to see is the spawn of more government programs enabled by access to dollars provided by the administration of President Barack Obama.

“The Democrats talk about using the federal stimulus money for public works projects, but I don’t have any faith in public works projects,” said Merkt, who attended the 23rd District special convention on Saturday as part of a schedule of GOP events this weekend.

“If we’re going to have recovery in New Jersey, we need to have private sector jobs and tax cuts for the business community,” he added.