Rick Shaftan

Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany) said today that a poll by gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan that shows him running ahead of GOP rival Christopher Christie in DeCroce and Christie's backyard of Morris County is "totally wrong."

"Absolutely not.  Half of everything he's been coming out with we have found out to be untruths in the largest way.  Certainly this poll is totally wrong. We know for a fact that he's way out of line," said DeCroce in response to a question from PolitickerNJ.com.

DeCroce, who has faced intense criticism by the Lonegan campaign, is facing a Lonegan-sponsored primary challenge from construction company owner Lou Signorino.  Earlier this week, Lonegan strategist Rick Shaftan said that DeCroce himself could be in trouble in the primary, since his own poll showed Lonegan leading Christie by seventeen points in Morris County.

Steve Lonegan's campaign has internal polling that shows the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination to be a statistical dead heat, with Christopher Christie leading 36.1%-34.5%, according data obtained by PolitickerNJ.com.  Rick Merkt receives .4% of the vote.

Among likely voters, the race is within two-tenths of one percent, with Christie leading Lonegan 36.6%-36.4%.  Merkt has .5%.

The survey, conducted April 19-24, by Neighborhood Research, a firm owned by Lonegan strategist Rick Shaftan, finds that 70% of the likely Republican primary voters polled consider themselves to be conservative, while 24% say they are moderates and 4% identify themselves as liberal.  

The poll claims that "Christie and Lonegan have near universal name ID and virtually identical favorables, although a higher percentage is unfavorable or mixed on Christie.  Rick Merkt is virtually unknown."

Among likely voters, Christie has a 44%-12% favorable rating with 97% name ID.  Lonegan is at 43%-7%, with 93% name ID.  A majority of voters, the poll says, view Christie as moderate or liberal, while 56% identify Lonegan as a conservative.

Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham) is excluded from the two official GOP gubernatorial debates because he did not raise $340,000

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Merkt, who is not allowed to participate in the two televised debates sanctioned by the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) because he did not raise or spend enough money to qualify, is considering a legal challenge to force his inclusion.

"I understood you had to debate if you accepted money, but I never realized the statute was drawn in such a way as to preclude anyone else from participating, which I find as a good metaphor for how the closed the system is," said Merkt, who is also an Assemblyman from Mendham.  "If you think about this, what it means is the chosen candidates -- those who accept taxpayer dollars - basically get a huge unreported in-kind contribution from the networks involved."

Since ELEC started sanctioning debates for public-financed candidates in 1989, its statute has limited participation to those who have qualified for matching funds by raising at least $340,000, or those who have opted not to take matching funds but have raised and spent at least the same amount.

Merkt is considering challenging the statute in court, though he has not yet decided whether it's worth the trouble.

Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham) wants six debates with the two other Republican gubernatorial primary candidates – one for every week left of the primary.  

The other candidates, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie and former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, both receive matching funds from the state, which requires them to participate in two televised debates sponsored by the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC).  Merkt, who did not raise the $340,000 necessary to qualify for the funds, can not participate in the ELEC debates.

Merkt said that the state’s voters should have more than two chances to evaluate the candidates.  

“This is no time for a ‘beauty contest’ primary in which a candidate’s wealth or celebrity decides the nomination,” he said.  “The stakes are way too high for New Jersey to put up with an inexperienced Governor for the next four years.”

The Election Law Enforcement Commission has transferred $116,824 in matching funds to Republican gubernatorial candidate Steven Lonegan

Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan’s campaign finally got a check for matching funds yesterday, after submitting for them on March 19.

Lonegan was given $116,824.78 by the state, after the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) held up payment while they investigated complaints about a fundraising mailing in which Lonegan included a dollar bill to entice potential donors to open the envelope.  

Lonegan rival Chris Christie, who is considered the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, received $388,708 in matching funds yesterday for his April 7 submission. Rick Shaftan, a strategist for Lonegan, said that his campaign expects to be given those matching funds on Monday.

Todd Christie, left, the brother of GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie, and Rick Shaftan, right, the chief strategist for GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan

The Republican gubernatorial primary campaign between Chris Christie and Steve Lonegan has gotten personal before, but Lonegan’s chief strategist, Rick Shaftan, feels that some messages that Christie’s brother Todd sent to him through a popular social networking Web site crossed the line.

On April 6, Todd Christie sent Shaftan a private message on Facebook.com, writing “Can't wait to dance on your political grave.”

Three days later, Shaftan responded, “Lighten up dude. This is nothing compared to what's coming up. It just gets better!”

Todd Christie wrote back with what Shaftan took as an ominous message:  “This is fun for you messing with peoples lives. Payback comes in many forms,,,,at any time. Enjoy.”

According to Shaftan, that was the third and final exchange between the two men, who have both become lightning rods in the primary campaign -- Shaftan for his disdain for the state’s Republican establishment and brash on-the-record remarks, and Todd Christie for heading up a trading company whose practices ultimately brought sanctions from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“When I threaten people, I do it face-to-face -- never in writing,” joked Shaftan. 

This time it’s for real, according to Steve Lonegan’s gubernatorial campaign.

They will receive their sixth submission for matching funds, which has been held up by the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC), tomorrow.

Lonegan strategist Rick Shaftan said that that ELEC’s commissioners received a complaint about a fundraising mailing his campaign sent out in which they included visible dollar bills inside envelopes to encourage recipients to open the fundraising plea.  The commission wants details on the mailing, including how many the campaign sent out.  

“We’re going to continue to get two-to-one matching funds. Nobody’s cutting that off, and we’ll have all the money we need to go onto the primary and then November,” said Shaftan, who said that rumors that ELEC was investigating Lonegan’s ties to his old employer, Americans for Prosperity, were false.

Steve Lonegan's gubernatorial campaign expects to receive a delayed check from the state with matching funds today, according to their chief strategist, Rick Shaftan.

"We're getting that check today.  That's what I was told, anyway," said Shaftan.

Lonegan has yet to see about $75,000 in donations he filed on March 24 matched.  Republican rival Chris Christie, who is the only other candidate participating in the state's public financing program, was given $376,670 in matching funds on March 31 after submitting his donations on March 24.

The state provides $2 for every $1 raised for up to $3.1 million in the primary and $7.3 million in the general election through its public financing program.

"I don't know why it was held up or it was a lot to go through," said Shaftan, who guessed that it might take the state longer to pour through Lonegan's many small donors from around the country, as opposed to Christie's fewer large donors who are mainly from in-state.

The state Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) will have a meeting by telephone on Tuesday afternoon to discuss an “urgent matter of importance” concerning the gubernatorial primary.

The commission gave notice of its meeting in a press release yesterday evening, but did not specify what would be discussed.

The commission used the exact same phrase – “an urgent matter of importance and of concern to the public interest about the 2009 gubernatorial election” – regarding its meeting last month about whether Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan should be disqualified from receiving matching funds because he failed to disclose his former status as a Lobbyist for the anti-tax group Americans for Prosperity.  Ultimately, ELEC decided to take no action against Lonegan.

Only two candidates for governor are taking public campaign funds from ELEC: Lonegan and former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie had to come out and directly address issues relating to the way he awarded federal monitoring contracts, according to three non-partisan political analysts.

The question, however, is whether Christie snuffed out growing media attention that has questioned his command of the issue that is supposed to be his strong suit: ethics.

Christie yesterday opened himself up to any question reporters had about allegations of cronyism and pay-to-play from his opponents and political commentators.  At issue was his appointment of David Kelley, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to a federal monitoring contract; $23,800 in donations to his campaign from the law firm Stern & Kilcullen, which he had earlier appointed to monitor the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey; and the one-and-a -half year old story about awarding of a federal monitoring contract with $27 to $52 million to his former boss, former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.

"It wasn't going to go away.  He has to tackle them head-on because he can't be seen to be ignoring them," said Peter Woolley, a pollster and political science professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University.  "And they're still not going to go away, because the campaign tactic book dictates that you always hit somebody in their strength.  So if his strength is integrity, or at least that's what the public's perception of his strength is, then the tactic book says that's where you have to tear him down."